HONG Kong's Indian community may hire a professional lobbyist to persuade a reluctant Britain to grant them full citizenship. Two prominent community leaders said yesterday it was now clear that the future for their passports lay with Britain. Kewalram Sital, chairman of the Council of Indian Associations, said he would be urging his members to find some way of stepping up campaigns in London. Meanwhile, the Indian Resources Group (IRG) representing young Indian professionals, said it was already talking to public relations firms about how to bolster support. ''We've got to allay these fears that there will be mass migration, which there simply won't be,'' said IRG chairman Kishore Sakhrani. About 25 IRG members petitioned the Governor, Chris Patten, outside the Executive Council yesterday. About 2,000 signatures have been collected from Hong Kong people supporting the demand for full British citizenship for all ethnic minorities holding British documents as a safeguard after 1997. Vice-chairman Mohan Chugani said: ''We have grounds for fear given the recent refusal of even a Chinese national to re-enter China and the confusing definition of local in the dispute over the Government's localisation policy.'' Five members from the group will visit London in two months' time, to lobby the Foreign Office and the House of Commons.
