Punjab Post Daily Online Newspaper & Print Media
Special Report by Harjap Singh Aujla
The New India House located at 3 East, 64th Street, houses the Consulate General of India Office in New York City. Since March of 2014, this apex diplomatic office of the Government of India has been holding monthly lectures on India and the Indo-US relations. On Friday the July 18th 2014, the fifth monthly lecture was held. The subject was “Role of Ethnic Media in promoting India – US ties. The key-note speaker was none other than Mr. Aziz Haniffa, Managing Director India Abroad. Incidentally India Abroad, dating back to 1971, is the oldest Ethnic Indian weekly newspaper in America. The main speaker was introduced to the distinguished audience by the Consul General of India Mr. Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay. Ambassador Mulay briefly spoke about the achievements of Aziz Haniffa as a journalist working for “India Abroad” since 1981. He also gave a brief introduction about the moderator Ms. S. Mitra Kalita, another reputed journalist.
In his speech Aziz Haniffa, powered by his encyclopedic memory, narrated by and large all the important landmark events of the Asian Indian diaspora in the United States and the events of importance back home in India in a virtual chronological order. Those were the times, when the Asian Indian population in America was infinitesimally small and was not on the radar screens of the mainstream American media. Gopal Raju, an immigrant from India, opened a travel agency to serve the community. And as a side kick, he started a weekly newspaper called “India Abroad” in 1971. This much needed periodical expanded rapidly and was widely circulated from coast to coast in the Indian diaspora. When Indira Gandhi declared National Emergency in India in 1975, the publications in India were vigorously censored. But in America, Gopal Raju (India Abroad), maintained his fierce independence and published the articles of numerous authors critical of the government of India. Subsequently India Abroad relentlessly fought against the hate Indian lobby spearheaded by extreme right-winger Republicans led by Dan Burton and Jesse Helms. Soon, the American mainstream media also started some coverage of the stories about India and the Asian Indians living in America. Aziz Haniffa said that he also joined the India Abroad in 1981. The important events after that were the Sikh militancy, the Army Operation in the Golden Temple, the Indira Gandhi assassination and its bitter aftermath.
India abroad opposed the sale of state of the art F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan. They cultivated friendship with Congressman Steven Solarz of New York, who led the campaign to project the positive side of India as a democratic pluralistic society against the military dictatorship in next door neighbor Pakistan. These efforts met with quite a bit of success. India Abroad covered the close friendship between Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President Ronald Reagan. India had not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), because of which entire Western World, including the USA was critical of India’s intentions. India Abroad toiled relentlessly for the acceptance of concept of Indo-US Nuclear Cooperation agreement in the United States Congress. Ambassador Ronen Sen of India played a stellar role in preparing the ground for Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal. When Bofors Howitzer purchase scandal surfaced, India Abroad unsuccessfully pursued the role of Amitabh Bachchan and Ajitabh Bachchan in this infamous defence related scandal. Later on India Abroad facilitated and extensively covered President Clinton’s five day official visit to India against barely an eight hour stopover in Pakistan.
Since the days of India Abroad, a lot of ethnic Indian newspapers have proliferated all over the United States. Many of them are in the regional Indian languages and are specifically covering the regional news from India and news of that particular region’s Diaspora in the United States.
Throughout the speech, the knowledgeable audience heard it in pin drop silence. Later on the moderator Ms. S. Mitra Kalita had a lively question answer session with Aziz Haniffa. To a question from this reporter, Aziz Haniffa admitted that the seed for the Indo-US Nuclear Deal was planted during the visit to the United States by Mr. Lal Krishan Advani, the second in command in the Vajpayee led NDA Government in New Delhi. But it was pushed hard later on by President George W. Bush Junior during Dr. Manmohan Singh’s First Prime Ministerial term. By now the ethnic Indian media has assumed a lot more importance, but the accent in future will be on electronic media available through the medium of computers, i-phones and i-pads, like e-papers, face book and twitter.
