New York: Four major national organizations representing the Indian American community combined

New York: Four major national organizations representing the Indian American community combined to form National Coordination Council that pledged to work together for issues concerning the community at large in a meeting held in conjunction with the biennial convention of National Federation of Indian American Associations.

The meeting had representatives from major organizations like Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), American Association of Physicians from India (AAPI), Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) and National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA) who agreed on a common agenda to work cooperatively on issues affecting Indian American community. The meeting coordinated by Niraj Baxi of NFIA also had elegant members like Dr. Ajeet Singhvi, president of AAPI, Chandrakant Patel, chairman of AAHOA and Inder Singh, chairman of GOPIO.

Baxi reminded that all the four organizations had involved in conducting similar functions in Washington D C to advocate before the Congress their respective positions. Each organization has been independently dealing with hate crimes and immigration and other issues of discrimination against Indian Americans and will get organized from now on functions like White House briefing. The organizations agreed they have many common interests on which they all can agree and work together. They acknowledged that there are many common issues the community face in the country like passport surrender, visas to travel to Indian, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card and Pravasi Bharatiya Divas which can be tackled successfully with a combined and organized effort.

In fact Dr Ajeet Singhvi of AAPI had included this idea as a part of the agenda when he took chair of the association last summer. He and all other leaders hope this endeavor would be a success and can support each single organization when they are up against a crisis. The group named National Coordinating Council will tackle with issues that change with time and show a rapid and joint response with an adamant stride.

The council which designated Niraj Baxi as coordinator has agreed to meet again in fall in Washington DC.