National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA)

 

 

 

Number 3                                                                                  August 2005

  

In this Issue

 

NFIA Will Raise Funds to help Victims of Hurricane Katrina

NFIA Board Meeting in Atlanta

NFIA Celebrates 25th Anniversary

Profile of Anna Prasad

Congressional Reception in Washington DC

Tears in Paradise by Rajendra Prasad

Join NFIA

 

CONTRIBUTE FUNDS TO HELP VICTIMS OF

HURRICANE KATRINA

 

 

Hurricane Katrina barreled into the Gulf Coast causing havoc in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The Category 4 hurricane produced wide spread devastation with entire towns being wiped off in the three States. Hundreds of lives have been lost and thousands of people have become homeless. Charities like the American Red Cross are pleading for funds to take care of the victims.

 

The NFIA Board of Directors has started a campaign to raise funds to help these victims. We are requesting our kind hearted brethren to please contribute money towards the KATRINA HURRICAN RELIEF FUND. Please send your checks payable to NFIA to 6912 Winter Lane, Annandale VA 22003. All the money collected will be sent to the American Red Cross.

 

 

 

NFIA Celebrates 25^th Anniversary with Pomp and Pageantry

 

With a spectacular 180 degree view of the city, the 16^th floor restaurant, Terrace on the Park in Queens in New York, was the unique venue for a Gala banquet held on Saturday May 29, in connection with the 25^th anniversary celebrations of the National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA), an umbrella organization of various organizations of people who trace their roots to India. Over 300 delegates and guests, coming from all parts of the United States were treated with sumptuous dinner, breath taking entertainment and stimulating remarks from the NFIA officials and Indian diplomats.

 

Twenty-five years ago, on the Memorial Day weekend, the NFIA was founded in New York. The organizers wanted to memorialize that moment and celebrate its 25 years of service to the Indian American community. NFIA that has faced many ups and down in the last few years as a result of internal bickering appeared to be a vibrant organization on solid grounds, with a cohesive team of officers committed to serve the community. It was indeed a memorable event for all those who attended the celebrations. NFIA was infused with new healthy blood that is bound to reenergize the largest umbrella organization in the United States.

 

Lal Motwani who was, as the chair of the 25^th anniversary celebrations, the main force behind this function and the editor of a 4-color souvenir released at the event said, “I could not have done this function without the financial support and dedicated service of my organizing committee. I am particularly indebted to my Co-chairs, Thomas Abraham, Arvind Shah and Sunjay Naik and to my many financial supporters, especially Navin Mehta, P.K. Gupta of Air India, H.R. Shah of TV Asia, Sunil Hali of Indian Express, Kenny Desai, Mukund Mody, Jack Kapur, Darshan Bagga, Jitu Hirani, and Ramesh Kalicharan. I also want to acknowledge the tireless hours contributed by Ritesh Veera, Kiran Hari, Leela Maret and Jaswant Mody.” He added, “these people were the backbone of the program.” 

 

The event emceed by Mehta started at 7:00 p.m., with an open bar, such luxury rarely seen at the Indian functions. Each couple was provided an opportunity to be photographed in one corner of the lobby. The attendees were served a large number of Indian snacks and were seen rubbing shoulders with Indian diplomats and exchanging cards with other people.

 

The delegates and guests were escorted into the dinning room at 8:30 p.m. The hall was decorated so well befitting the birth anniversary of the NFIA. A large colorful cake with the logos of the NFIA was cut to signify the birthday of the organization. Virtually all past presidents were on hand to join in the celebrations. Rajen Anand, the president of the NFIA praised all past presidents for vision to start and sustain this umbrella organization that accepts membership from all organizations, irrespective of their religious, regional, ethnic, professional or political affiliation. He said that organization truly represents the cultural diversity of India.

 

“Twenty five years of existence of an organization is not in itself a significant event. What is most important of NFIA is the loyalty and commitment of the people involved in the group,” observed Anand. “Indian Americans have changed, their needs have changed, and their demands for service have changed. NFIA has also to change if it, as it claims, wants to serve the community. It has to change its focus from the ‘India based’ issues to mainstream concerns. We have similar needs as any other American. We breath the same air we want it to be clean; we drink the same water we want it to be pure; our children go to the same school we want them to provide the best possible education; we walk on the same streets that we want to be safe; many of our seniors depend on social security and it is in our own interest that the system remains solvent for our children. The sooner we start addressing these mainstream issues, the better our community will be in the United States,” emphasized Anand.

 

In eloquent remarks, Ambassador Sen pleaded with the people to become good citizens of their adopted country, but not to forget their roots. “Be proud of your origin,” insisted Sen. He said that the economic prosperity of the Indian Americans has helped a great deal to change the image of India. Today, India needs your experience, she does not need your money, said Sen. We, in India, have plenty of money. He explained how Indian Americans are able to make huge profits by investing money in India. Sen paid a tribute to the contributions of Indian Americans towards strengthening cordial relations between India and the US. “It was one the best speeches I have heard from the Ambassador,” said an attendee after the speech.        

 

All the past presidents, Thomas Abraham (1980-1988), Inder Singh (1988-1992), Ramesh Patel (1992-1996), Subash Razdan (1996-1998), Haresh Panchal (1998-2000), Parthasarthy Pillai (2000-2002) and Niraj Baxi (2002-2004) were honored by the NFIA at the occasion. Each one of them was given a beautiful glass plaque acknowledging his service. The past presidents were subjected to a very humorous Roast on Friday evening. 

 

A special award was presented to Joy Cherian, the former Commissioner of EEOC, and the speaker at a seminar earlier on Saturday. Unfortunately, Cherian was hurt by a fall soon after he delivered his speech. NFIA also paid a moving tribute to Lal Motwani, the chair of the 25^th anniversary celebrations. “His enormous contributions to the success of this program are beyond description. He has spent sleepless nights and foodless days in organizing this event,” said Anand. “The NFIA is very grateful to him, to his team, and to his family for their hard work.” He added.

 

A seven year old girl, performing a solo dance, stole the show and won a loud applause during the brief entertainment program organized by Dharmatma Saran and Kalpana Patel.

 

Pramod Kamdar, the executive vice president, NFIA summed up the sentiments of all delegates attending this event when he said, “the great success of this event has made NFIA alive and vibrant organization again.”

 

A colorful souvenir released at the event traced the pictorial history of NFIA. “It is the best souvenir, I have ever seen being released by an Indian organization,” commented Niraj Baxi, the chair of the NFIA Foundation.

 

SEMINARS ON SATURDAY

 

Abraham, the founder of the organization, organized seven seminars all day Saturday on different topics. The first seminar was on the Community Leadership: Experiences and Expectations, at which Joy Cherian, Thomas Abraham, Piyush Agrawal, Niraj Baxi and Nilesh Mehta traced the history of Indian organizations in this country and talked about how the community was mobilized for specific actions. Parmatama Saran moderated the seminar. Cherian gave a warning to all associations that unless they change their focus to mainstream issues and involve the younger generation, they will all perish. This was followed by a seminar on US-India Relations: Progress made and challenges Ahead. Those, who spoke on this tropic, were Dennis Kux. Senior Policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center as keynote speaker, Inder Singh, Subash Razdan and Radha Krishnan as panelist. Maya Chadda moderated the discussion. Kux and Razdan painted an optimistic picture of the state of relations between India and Pakistan. The seminar generated a lively question answer period. The third session was on Indian Writers in America in which prominent writers residing in the US presented the various challenges facing them. The speakers were Susham Bedi, Rohini Ramanathan, Abha Dawesar, Vijay Seshadri, Jawahara Saidullah, Raju Thomas and Bindeshwari Aggarwal. The session on Political Empowerment was moderated by Sree Sreenivasan included Aziz Haniffa, Upendra Chivukula, Joseph Melookaran, and Ravi Sakhuja. Delivery of Services to the Community seminar was compered by Sudha Acharaya and the panelists included Theresa Thanjam, Sambhu Banik, Ashwani Chowdhary, and Rajeshwar Prasad. Two other seminars were held on the issues facing Indian American businesses and Indian American Youths.  Sushila Gidwani, Sid Gautam, Victor Khubani, Subhash Roy, Krishnan Chittur and Surendra Kaushik were speakers at the business seminar. Moderated by Karthik Ramanathan, the Youth seminar had Krupalee Shah, Paayal Mahajan, Sahil Khurana, Rohini Ramanathan, Phil Mock, and Anand Shah. Each of these sessions had thought provoking and stimulating discourses and generated a great deal of discussion at the end.

 

Thomas Abraham, the founder of the NFIA ably coordinated these seminars.

 

INAUGURATION ON FRIDAY

 

The delegates and guests gathered at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Friday evening. After the American and Indian anthems, Ambassador Ronen Sen inaugurated the program by the lightening of the traditional lamp. Congressman Gary Meek of New York gave a powerful speech, telling the audience that he has the highest number of South Asians in his district and how pleased he was by their support. Rajen Anand and Ashok Madan took the podium and gave a power point presentation of the activities of NFIA over the past 25 years. They also roasted the past presidents by hilarious anecdotes based on exaggerated weaknesses of each person.

 

“Lal Motwani worked day and night to put this program together,” remarked Anand. “The crown of success goes on his head. Without his hard work and support from his family, this celebration would not have been possible.” Lal who appeared very tired on Friday was seen beaming with happiness on Saturday evening, forgetting all his tiredness, after seeing the success of the program.

_________________________________

 

VISIT NFIA WEBSITE AT

www.nfia.net

 

 

Profile of Anna Prasad

 

Anna Prasad moved to the United States in 1979.  She completed her masters in Mathematics at Bangalore University and taught math in Bangalore and Calcutta before moving to the U.S. She

Anna Prasad, Member of the NFIA Board of Directors

completed 2 years masters Course in Computer Science in 1981 at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1981

 

and then moved to California and became a Real Estate entrepreneur.

 

She has served as the President and Chairman of FIA, Southern California. She founded Indo-American Council to bring about civic awareness in the Community and educate the legislators about India and the Indo-American Community.

 

She has a passion for Community service, worked extensively with the State and Federal

legislators. She has written many articles about India, Indo- U.S relations. She represented India and spoke at a congressional seminar about Terrorism in South East Asia. She organized International Festival of Harmony along with leaders of different Countries in Irvine, California. She has been featured in the book “spices in the melting pot”.

 

She has also been associated with the Nargis Dutt Foundation of Southern California.

 

 

NFIA JOINS HANDS WITH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS TO SPONSOR CONGRESSIONAL RECEPTION 

 In an unprecedented move, six national organizations came together and held a Gala Dinner Reception in honor of the US Lawmakers on the Capitol Hill, June 29, 2005. The Indian American Forum for Political Education (IAFPE), the National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA), the Association of Indians in America (AIA), the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), the American Association of Physicians from India (AAPI), and the Indian Diamond and Colorstone Association (IDCA) joined hands in sponsoring the event and pledged to continue to work together on agenda of common interest.  Although the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) was not a full participant, it supported the event by sending a senior executive.

 

Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-New York) and Congresswoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), the Co-Chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans spoke to the press before the start of the event. “If I were a bating man, I would have had a bet that this event would not take place,” said Ackerman jokingly. Ackerman commended the organizers for coming together for the first time with members of Congress to collectively discuss issues concerning their community at large, and for their efforts, leadership, and vision. “For the leaders of diverse Indian Americans Associations to just get together on one platform is a great accomplishment in itself and I congratulate all of you for this,” he added.

 

Ros-Lehtinen paid a great tribute to the Indian American community and said, “your devotion and hard work have brought great prosperity to countless communities in the United States.” She said she plans not only to advance both relations with India, but also help improve the lives of Indian Americans in the United States and address important domestic issues to the community.

 

Soon after the press conference, there was an emergency evacuation of the White House, U.S. Capitol and all Congressional buildings prompted by an intrusion of a small plane in Washington’s restricted airspace. Every occupant of these buildings was escorted out to open space. It took over an hour and a half to bring back the situation to normal.

 

Although as a result of inconvenience and confusion caused by the evacuation orders, some lawmakers committed to attend the event were unable to come, yet over a dozen of prominent legislators made their voices heard at the reception.

 

The group had forwarded a set of suggested items of domestic agenda for the Congressmen to address. These items included, immigration and visa problems faced by the community, affordable health insurance for the employees of small business owners, Franchising laws, health care reforms and Civil rights. The group asked the Congress to remove those provisions in the Patriot act that encourage racial profiling and curb civil liberties. Selected lawmakers were asked to address each of these issues.

 

One of the first congressmen who arrived after the evacuation was from Florida. Congressman Kendrick Meek who succeeded to his mother’s seat in the Congress, expressed his particular concern about the security of India in the light of expanding terrorism and how the military cooperation between India and the US was important for the two democracies.

 

Congressman Howard Berman (D-California), the ranking member of the House Judiciary committee and an expert on immigration laws indicated that his committee had raised the quota of H-1B visas granted to individuals. He said he would continue to fight for fair and equitable immigration policies. He also indicated that as member of the India Caucus, he has and will continue to work with Indian American community.

 

Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey), the founder of the India Caucus and darling of the community reminded the audience the challenges the community has to address in the coming weeks. “President (George) Bush is going ahead with selling of F-16 planes to Pakistan, despite protests from some members of the India Caucus. The Administration solution to also sell these sophisticated planes to India is no solution at all,” emphasized Pallone. He said it would change the balance of power in the region and start an arms race all over again. 

 

Joe Wilson (R- South Carolina) said that his connection to India goes long way back when his father served in the World War II as member of the Flying Tigers with Indian Soldiers. “I am very impressed with the entrepreneur spirit of Indian Americans in my State,” added Wilson who has an Indian American as a senior member of his staff. He announced to loud applause that he was promoting Dino Teppara to become his Legislative Director.

 

Bobby Jindal (R-Louisiana), the Indian American Congressman elected in 2004 after a long gap since Dalip Singh Saund came to the House in 1956, brought the crowed on its feet when he barely entered the hall. He said he thought if you had 3 Indian Americans, they would form 4 associations that do not speak to each other. “How could you get all these associations together in one room,” he asked. He said he is very happy to serve the cause of Indian Americans in the House and would work with the other members of the India Caucus to strengthen US-India relations.

The Republican from Michigan, introduced by Radha Krishnan, president-elect NFIA, Congressman Thadeous McCotter said he was very disturbed when his Sikh constituents were mistaken for Arab terrorists after the 9-11 incidents. He said he went to a Sikh Temple (Gurdwara) to ensure Sikhs that he would do every thing to stop these incidents. He also indicated every newly immigrated community has suffered similar treatment as the India Americans. “Ask the Irish Americans what they had to go through,” he added.

Other lawmakers who attended and made brief remarks at the event were, Congressmen Christopher Shays (R-CT), Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland), Darrell Issa (R-California), Rush Holt (D-New Jersey), Bob Filner (D-California), Brad Sherman (D-CA), David Price (D-North Carolina) and Jim Moran (D-Virginia)

 

Several other members of the Congress came during the 6-7 p.m. when the buildings were being evacuated and were not able to make their remarks.

 

JIM McGovern (D-Massachusetts) was first to arrive in time at 6 PM sharp for the reception and waited in lobby because the doors to reception room were closed and no body was authorized to enter the reception room until leadership arrived.

Finally, Congressman Jim McGovern had to leave due to roll call bell. Before leaving McGovern grabbed a chair in the lobby, stood up on the chair and spoke to the audience who were waiting in the lobby.

 

Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, the member of the New Jersey Legislature also addressed the audience and impressed upon the attendees the clout we can have when we join hands with other associations.

 

As a symbolic gesture to display the spirit of unity, the various heads of the participating organizations or their representatives joined and raised their hands to pledge to work together.

 

Throughout the evening a spirit of unity was felt in the air. “It (this event) is a dream come true,” said Nilesh Mehta, the president of IAFPE. He said he invited the heads of various associations to the IAFPE convention last year and impressed upon them the need to speak with one voice. Tonight was the result of that effort.

 

“Over the past decade Indian American community has progressed from being an invisible minority to a model minority. Thanks to our industriousness and collective vision, we have made significant strides over the years. We have moved from being ignored, to being observed. Now is the time to make our presence felt on the main street USA.  There are no excuses for not accelerating our participation at the higher level of the political process,” emphasized Mehta. “This is our first step in that direction,” he added

 

 

Rajen Anand, president of the NFIA, an umbrella organization, narrated the many significant outcomes of this event. “The very fact that we all have gathered on one platform and pledged to speak with one voice is an accomplishment in itself. We have agreed to a set of agenda items that we jointly want to pursue, and for the first time, we have moved beyond the single issue of US-India relations and are also focusing on domestic issues that affect our daily life,” he commented.

 

`“Since our first effort to interact with the White House and the Capital, it took about twenty years for the community to become matured so as to focus on issues of common agenda” echoed Thomas Abraham, Founding President of NFIA and currently Chairman of GOPIO. “For an organization such a GOPIO, it is very important to work with other national Indian American associations to make the US lawmakers aware of PIOs’ civil rights and human rights violations in some of the countries,” Abraham insisted.  

 

Vinod Shah, treasurer of AAPI said that we all faced the same issues despite our different organizational affiliations and it was extremely critical for all of us to work together. Basant Johari, president of IDCA, remarked that the by uniting all organizations we would have synergistic results, rather than every organization working in isolation. Stephan Parker V.P of Fair Franchising

 

and Government affairs of AAHOA expressed a strong desire to work closely with all organizations.

 

Piyush Agrawal, the past president of AIA summed up the sentiments of the organizers when he remarked, “It was

 

 

quite an intoxicating event as another fresh start took place based upon the

 

experiences gained through the previous attempts. Cooperation is a multi-dimensional concept with a built-in provision of give & take. I am extremely delighted that the spirit of cooperation was alive and well at this event.”