Dear GOPIO Supporter:
I thought you may be interested to read GOPIO viewpoints on NRIs/PIOs. Our community efforts are bearing some fruits as evidenced by major media
noticing us. Here is a Times of India (August 25th) interview. Although, a lot of credit is given to me for these community efforts, I want to point out that, it has been a team effort as indicated in the title of the interview. Thomas Abraham ******* TIMES OF INDIAFriday, 25 August 2000Team Indians It was US-based Thomas Abraham who initiated the non-resident Indian (NRI)movement in North America as far back as the early '70s. He was the first president of the Federation of Indian Association (FIA) and founder-president of the National Federation of Indian-American Associations. He also founded the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO). Kerala-born Abraham went to Jaipur's Malaviya Engineering College before leaving for the US to study at Columbia University, New York. An expert in advanced materials, Abraham tells Gurmukh Singh that the 21st century belongs to us, Indians, because of our immense potential and talent: How do you think the Indian diaspora will contribute for promoting the interests of India? The Indian diaspora has already played a very big role in altering perceptions about India. They have exposed western society to our rich heritage, art forms, food, and traditions. The one-to-one contact of our people with their western counterparts has completely changed perceptions about India. As for India's development, NRIs have been playing a big role in bringing foreign companies to invest in India. There are enormous opportunities forNRIs to get actively involved as well as support various educational and social service activities. Many NRIs and their organisations have set upschools and colleges in their home towns in India. They have also been in the forefront championing various social and environmental causes in India. Has the West revised its perception of India now with NRIs acquiring high profiles, particularly in information technology? The last decade saw NRIs become enormously rich, thanks to the computer and Internet revolution. There are at least a dozen NRI billionaires andhundreds of NRI millionaires. Many of them left India with very little in their pocket, but they became very successful thanks to their hard work. Asa result, the larger society in the West today views the new crop of Indians as very hard working and intelligent. When they see a large number ofprofessionals, entrepreneurs and businessmen in our ranks, that automatically translates as a substantial change in the image of India. Don't you think the next step for Indians abroad should be to form lobbies, like the Jews have, for instance, in the corridors of power, promote Indiaand seek a share in the decision-making process in these countries? We initiated this process in the US in the early '80s during the administration of President Reagan. He invited the Asian community leaders to the White House for discussions for the first time in 1986. This process has been continued since then. When the late Rajiv Gandhi visited the US, we campaigned for him to be invited to address both the Houses of the US Congress. This was continued when Rao visited America in the early '90s, and now Prime Minister Vajpayee too will address both the Houses. The Indian community is actively involved with both the Democrats and Republicans for the presidential election. I am confident that we will have an elected representative of Indian origin in the US Congress in this decade itself. We have been successful inbuilding the Indian Caucus in Congress which numbers about 120 and is a powerful group for India. How are the NRIs different from other ethnic groups like the Chinese in the West? The Indians in the West constitute the most educated group. Unlike other ethnic groups, a majority of Indians came to the West as students andprofessionals. Unlike the Chinese who have formed Chinatown all over the West, the Indians have relatively dispersed settlement patterns. This hasmade it easy for the community to assimilate in the larger society. Does the so-called glass ceiling for Indians exist even now? No, not any more. I do remember in the '70s and '80s, it was next to impossible for Indians to climb above the level of, say, vice president onthe corporate ladder. Thanks to the US employment laws, education and training, and the information technology revolution, we now have a largenumber of Indians at the top positions as shown by Fortune's list of 500 companies. What are the common complaints NRIs have against the Indian system? There is a feeling among NRIs that the Indian government views the NRIs nothing more than a source for extracting money -- whether it is through the PIO card or deposits. Hopefully, the newly appointed commissioner for NRIs will address this problem. But NRIs look at India in an entirely different way. Our relationship with our motherland is more than monetary. NRIs want to be partners in the development of India. The central and state governments should make it easy for them to participate in this process. But there are many things which needs to changed first. For instance, whenever an NRI seeks Custom clearance, he or she is invariably pressured to pay bribes irrespective of the fact whether the goods are dutiable or not. There have been cases when NRI passengers were made to miss their flight by these callous officials. Within the government itself, there is a lot of confusion about handling NRI affairs. Today, an NRI has to deal with the ministries of external affairs, finance, home, commerce, human resource, information technology and industry. I think the best solution will be to have a ministry for overseas Indians under the Prime Minister directly. If this is not possible immediately, there should be a coordinating body headed by a special secretary, with additional secretaries dealing with NRIs in each of their ministries. The government should also appoint some NRIs to the Rajya Sabha, so that they can interact with the government at the top level about NRI affairs. What do you expect from the NRI Generation X? The boom-time NRI generation has accumulated enormous wealth and knowledge. Since the next generation has done extremely well in their careers there isan enormous amount of money available to these successful youngsters who are setting up foundations to help promote environment, social and educational causes in India. They can bring financial resources and a lot of proven ideas to India. An example is the running of professional educational institutions. The government should hand over their management to private and public trusts and utilise the savings for primary and secondaryeducation for the poor. You organised a meet in Switzerland recently on the Fiji crisis and announced a global action plan for NRIs. Since its inception, GOPIO has been fighting against human rights violations of people of Indian origin. The situation is improving fast. Fiji was anexception. Under our new action plan we will consider attacks on NRIs in any part of the world as attacks on the whole non-resident Indian communityabroad. We will meet regularly to review particular cases. The 21st century belongs to Indians -- both inside India and abroad -- because of ourimmense individual potential and resources.