Indian Ambassador Honors Dr. Tharoor and Speaking with Members of Congress to Raise Immigration Issues

On Tuesday, May 8, 2007, I had the pleasure of attending a dinner to honor Dr. Shashi Tharoor at the residence of Dr. and Mrs. Ronendra Sen, the Indian Ambassador to the U.S. in Washington, D.C. As many of you may know, Dr. Tharoor was most recently the Under Secretary General of the United Nations in New York, NY, who worked closely with Kofi Anan, the then UN Secretary General for several years. I have known Dr. Tharoor and his family as personal friends since I had attended Dr. Tharoor’s sister’s wedding in Kerala about 25 years ago! It was wonderful to meet with with Shashi after such a long time and catch up! Dr. Tharoor received the “Pravasi Bharatiya Samman,” which is the highest honor that the Indian government can bestow on an overseas non-resident.

It was a wonderful evening and many U.S. and Indian-American leaders were present. I also had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with various leaders, including the Co-Chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India: Joe Wilson, the Republican Co-Chair, and Jim McDermott, the Democratic Co-Chair. Mr. Wilson proudly shared the fact with me that both his scheduler and his Chief of Staff are IndianAmericans. Needless to say, I discussed my views on U.S. immigration laws and that we need their support towards eliminating or increasing the H1B quota to bring in skilled workers that U.S. businesses need and that we also need their help to introduce laws to increase immigrant quotas to reduce waiting times for the “green card.” They both agreed to help and gave me their contact information for me to follow up with them, which I certainly intend to do to help our immigrant community! After all, the greatness of America lies in our ability to bring in the best from around the world.