SPECIAL ISSUE

January 22, 2000: FIA election fiasco

Dear Readers:
A little over a year ago all the national channels, including ABC, NBC and CBS telecast a bizarre scene of free-for-all behavior of Indian politicians in the Uttar Pradesh assembly. The telecast made members of our community in the US feel embarrassed and awkwardly ashamed in front of our American friends. Occasionally, we also hear at our social gatherings remarks like “our politicians are rude, uncivilized, illiterate … they don’t deserve to be leaders … etc.”
You may wonder why I am refreshing your memory about this unsavory drama in the UP assembly. I am driven to do that because of an incident which I was an eye-witness on January 16. The incident I am mentioning here is even worse than the one we saw on TV about UP assembly.
The occasion was the election of office-bearers of the so-called umbrella organization - Federation of India Associations, Chicago. The organization is notorious for the unruly behavior, systematic manipulation and power-struggle by its dubious leaders. The current president, Sohan Joshi, promised me that this time the election would be conducted in a most democratic and disciplined manner, and he insisted that I should attend and watch the proceedings as an observer.
As Sohan Joshi sounded very serious and convincing, I was, for the first time, tempted to witness the FIA election process. But, I was not dismayed when it turned out to be farcical - perhaps the leaders did not want to break the tradition.
Though I was late by an hour, the drama was still continuing, and the scene I witnessed was unforgettable. About 200 most respected community members were present in the hall for the election, and our­­­ most educated and highly civilized leaders were jostling, shouting and snatching the microphone from each other to voice their “concerns” and prove their “point of views.” The confusion and chaos were so pitched that the president who was conducting the election process got disgusted and walk away from the hall. He was followed by one of the two presidential candidates.
But the three-member election committee still persisted and conducted the election “in favor of its own supportive candidate and his team” and declared them as elected as the new FIA committee for the year 2000.
The sad fact is that these were the same most respected, most educated and civilized Desi netas who so bad being Indians when they saw the unruly behavior of the UP politicians on TV.
Are they not hypocrites?

Sincerely,

Prashant Shah
Editor & Publisher