Slime Fest

You likely never heard of it, but the Seventh Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrating overseas Indians worldwide concluded on Jan. 9 in Chennai. Over the years, the annual spectacle has become a boondoggle and a self-aggrandizing jamboree for the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) Vayalar Ravi and his politically connected friends.

Attendance at the event continues to decline precipitously. This year fewer than 1,500 people —just 127 from the United States — attended, half the number that participated at the first celebration in 2003. More overseas Indians make it to alumni events, such as the Pan IIT annual conferences, than attend what is deemed the capstone event for the 20 million people in the Indian Diaspora. Something is surely remiss.

Union Minister of Overseas Iindian Affairs Vayalar Ravi at Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas – 2009.

The event has transformed into an annual insiders love fest, which is reflected in the caliber of the winners of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, the highest government honor for overseas Indians. In its early years, the samman recognized such overseas Indian stalwarts in politics, arts, science and literature as Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth of Mauritius, President Bharat Jadeo of Guyana, former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday of Trinidad & Tobago, Fijian golfer Vijay Singh, etc. In recent years, however, the awards have been completely politicized and gone to outright flakes, including, in one instance, a personal friend of MOIA Minister Ravi, at whose home he camps out on his U.S. visits. The awards have lost their luster. Which self-respecting winner would care to share the honor with an obscure physician who pays for his own publicity? In fact, this year one Indian newspaper even published a supplement on the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas packed with full page, paid, self-serving profiles of almost a dozen Indian Americans, including that of controversial hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, which restates his widely discredited claim that he held a personal meeting with U.S. Pres. Barack Obama at which he pledged to raise $10 million for his presidential campaign. The Obama campaign publicly repudiated the false claim and Chatwal, in fact, had no role in any fundraising for Obama. Indeed, Federal Election Commission records show that neither Chatwal, nor any member of his family, contributed even a dime to Obama’s campaign.

The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas has mutated into a slime fest for opportunistic politicians and shady businessmen, entirely divorced from the interests of the millions of overseas Indians it is designed to celebrate. It should come as no surprise therefore, that the global Indian community has so thoroughly repudiated the event. The only hope for restoring the credibility of what should be an uplifting celebration is by abjuring the self-serving bogeymen who have hogged the limelight at these events over the last several years.