Andhra Pradesh   

Protest mars Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award function

Special Correspondent

NRIs from U.S. objects to the selection of the awardee

HYDERABAD: An ugly incident marred the presentation of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awards by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam here on Monday when a group of overseas Indians from the United States objected to the selection of Sudhir Parikh for the honour.

As his name was called out to receive the award from Dr. Kalam at the valedictory session of the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Divas - 2006 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, an Indian residing in the US, Satyanath Chowdary, rushed towards the front rows and shouted "shame, shame. He is a friend of (Narendra) Modi (Gujarat Chief Minister)." Mr. Chowdhary and his colleagues represent an organisation called `Coalition Against Genocide'.

As a stunned gathering watched, three plainclothes policemen whisked him away from the large auditorium. Two other Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) — one of them identifed as Ataullah Khan, also followed him out. The police seized placards from a section of the gathering and detained all the three in an adjoining room till after the President left the venue.

The contention of Satyanath Chowdary, a professor of electrical engineering in New York University, was that Sudhir Parikh, a practising allergist, did not deserve the award since his organisation, the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA), USA, had planned a "Gujarat gaurav rath yatra" for Mr. Modi on the streets of New York city if Mr. Narendra Modi was granted a visa. Ataullah Khan said Mr. Parikh was not a leader of the NRIs and better people deserved the award.

Unfazed by the commotion, the President continued with the presentation of the prestigious award to Dr. Parikh, President of the Federation of Indian Associations, USA, and 10 other overseas Indians, and later addressed the gathering.

In his speech, Dr. Kalam urged the overseas Indians to provide leadership for transformation of the cluster of villages around the village with which they had connectivity. "What the more fortunate among us have to do is to provide leadership that could bring about transformation in the other India."

The President also explained that India had embarked on a mission to provide connectivity for a billion people in the form GRIDS. This grid gives national connectivity consisting of Knowledge, Health, e-Governance and Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA).

Kalam's questions

Dr. Kalam also posed two questions to the NRIs regarding the difficulties faced by them and how they defeated the problems, asking them to e-mail the answers to him. He said he would give a beautiful prize for the answers. The President released a special postal cover brought out on the occasion of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. Mr. Abdool Rauouf Bundhun, Vice-President of Mauritius, business magnate C.K. Menon and Ms. Pramila Kale, three of the 11 recipients of the Samman awards, Governor Sushil Kumar Shinde and Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indians Affairs S. Krishna Kumar also spoke.

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