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Nostalgia, bouquets and brickbats mark diaspora meet (LEADS) By P. Jayaram, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Jan 11 (IANS) The curtain fell on the first-ever convention here of the global Indian diaspora Saturday on a heart-swell of nostalgia, bouquets and brickbats from some 1,400 participants from 60 countries. The government made some important announcements aimed at building bridges between India and the 20 million-strong diaspora, but many delegates to the three-day meet felt the sops were largely aimed at the well-heeled sections of overseas Indians "with an eye on their dollars." Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement that India was not interested in "your riches, only your rich experience," did not impress many. The government's decision to grant dual citizenship to persons of Indian origin (PIOs) only in the U.S, Canada, Britain and some other European Union countries, besides those from Australia, Singapore and New Zealand drew mixed reactions. Many like Ujjal Dosanjh, former premier of Canada's British Columbia province and one of 10 eminent overseas Indians honoured for their achievements with the "Pravasi Bharatiya Samman" Awards at the convention, praised the decision. "It will boost ties and bring in more investment into India," Dosanjh said. But PIOs from Mauritius, Suriname, Trinidad and other smaller islands with considerable ethnic Indian populations felt a little left out of the diaspora celebration. They accused New Delhi of courting overseas Indians, particularly in the U.S. and Britain, for their dollars. A key announcement that came from Finance Minister Jaswant Singh was the government's decision to allow individuals to invest in companies abroad and double investment limits for mutual funds to $1 billion. "There is an emphasis here on NRIs (non-resident Indians). You do not want us, the people of the south. You only want those earning dollars in the north," said Dhundev Bauhdoor, chairman of the Global Organisation of PIOs, Mauritius. He also alleged that the PIOs, whose forefathers had left India as indentured labour over a century ago and were generally from lower Hindu castes, were particularly discriminated against. "My caste left me in my adopted country but does not seem to leave me when I come to India - even when I have done well for myself," he said. Of nearly 1,400 PIOs and NRIs attending the event, many undertook the journey to the land of their forefathers for the first time. Complaints were inevitable in a family reunion of such a scale, but it did not take away from the overwhelming nostalgia and belongingness that the diaspora felt in their country of origin. There were Indians from the French islands of Reunion, Martinique and Guadeloupe who were full of nostalgia on their first visit to India since their ancestors left the country's shores as indentured labour over a century ago. The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas began on January 9 marking the day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi returned to India after spending nearly two decades in South Africa. Symbolising the importance of preserving cultural ties between India and its children abroad, the convention kicked off with an inspired double act by two of India's greatest musicians - sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar and Shehnai wizard Ustad Bismillah Khan. Glittering evenings with Hindi film stars such as Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai, apart from other celebrities, generated further warmth as the NRIs and PIOs experienced the bitter cold that enveloped the capital this week. Business was conducted as briskly with delegates hearing luminaries such as Nobel laureates Amartya Sen and V.S. Naipaul, Mauritius Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth and former Commonwealth secretary-general Shridath Ramphal of Guyana or business and corporate achievers like Rajat Gupta, CEO of McKinsey, and Hari Harilela (Hongkong) and Manu Chandaria (Kenya). The panel debates covered a wide range of subjects, although these were too many speakers, with too little interaction. Indian politicians used the occasion fully to hog the limelight that left little time for others to speak. "They are only interested in listening to their own voices. They seem least bit interested in knowing about us," a delegate muttered. Nevertheless, delegates finally had their say as they forced Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to answer uncomfortable questions about the Gujarat communal carnage on the second day of the conference. When Advani asserted that India would always remain a secular nation, Nadira Naipaul, wife of the great novelist, asked in an obvious reference to the February-May sectarian violence whether Muslims, Christians and other minorities were as Indian as PIOs and NRIs. "I don't blame you. The image that has been created is that the Vajpayee government is concerned only about Hindus. It's an unfair image," Advani asserted. At the end of the event, most agreed that it was a great first time effort, but their enthusiasm was tempered with a large degree of scepticism about the future and the fruits of this conference. Naipaul had Friday remarked that the meet had the feel of a trade fair. But the ministry of external affairs dismissed the criticism and patted itself on the back. J.C. Sharma, secretary in the external affairs ministry and member of the organising committee of the convention, said: "It was a very satisfying experience. "We have been able to deliver the message that India has shed its ambivalence (towards its diaspora) -- the conference had a lot of feel-good factor." --Indo-Asian News Service
