The Indian American Forum for Political Education, a 22-year old grassroots body with nearly two dozen chapters all over the United States, held its biannual convention here December 11.

"We will have a strategy to see that two Indian Americans are elected to the Congress by 2010," said incoming president Nilesh Mehta, an entrepreneur based in Edison, NJ.

Expounding his vision for the Forum, Mehta said he will work closely with other national associations to accelerate the political participation of the community in the mainstream US. 

The biannual convention also formed the backdrop for a meeting of leaders of eight prominent Indian American organizations to chart out a minimum common program. Broad guidelines agreed upon during the meeting were empowering the community and working on domestic issues like racial discrimination, immigration, and political involvement of the second generation Indian Americans. Among those present at the meeting were Dr. Jagan Ailinani, president of AAPI, Rajen Anand, president of the National Federation of Indian American Associations; Thomas Abraham, chairman of GOPIO; and Dr. Piyush Agrawal, immediate past president of AIA.
Reflecting the mood, the biannual convention theme was "unity in diversity." Mehta of the Forum said the joint effort will also be to increase grass roots participation at the local level. 

Earlier during the day, the Forum chapters elected Ravi Sakhuja of Lexington, MI as the president elect. Addressing the banquet later in the evening, Dr. Sudhir Parikh, outgoing president of the Forum, recalled the IAFPE achievements during his tenure and said the Forum was among the first to voice protest against the sale of F-16s fighter jets to Pakistan. He said the Forum protests were heard in all three capitals - Washington, New Delhi and Islamabad. "We believe we contributed to the reported postponement of the sale," he added.

Present on the occasion of the transfer of the president’s baton in the evening were Congressman Joe Wilson, Republican co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus of India and Indian Americans; Prakash Khatri, ombudsman in the Department of Homeland Security; Consul General Pramathesh Rath, New Jersey Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, Edison mayor George A.Spadoro and other dignitaries. 

During the day-long convention, separate panel discussions were held on immigration, political involvement of second generation Indian Americans and the US-India trade relations.

The Bush government is committed to ease the immigration woes of the legal immigrants, said Khatri of Homeland Security, addressing the immigration panel. A pilot program is on in Dallas, TX to give permanent resident cards to the spouses of green card holders or citizens in less than three months, a record reduction from a waiting period of over an year or more now, he added.
Khatri called for the first immigrants who have created enough wealth to support their children to enter public service.

The other speakers included Vinay Singla, district adjudication officer for the Department of Homeland Security; Jerard Gonzalez, associate with Meyner and Landis; Gary Pasricha, immigration attorney; Subodh Chandra, law director, City of Cleaveland; Madhu Sridhar, president, Massachusetts League of Women Voters; Raymond E. Vickery, principal, Vickery International; Manisha Singh, trade counsel, US Senate Foreign Relations Committe and Karan Bhatia, assistant secretary of transportation aviation and international affairs.

Courtesy www.c2b2bnews.com