Today, the Presidents of the three major grass roots organizations met in Washington DC to create a framework of cooperation among them. They opined that there are too many Indian Organizations with similar goals if not identical ones and that are dispersing the limited community resources too thinly. The programs have become unnecessary duplication of each other. Some of them running to the same people in the Administration and in the Congress with conflicting agendas which has created not only confusion but these actions are not conducive to the public service to our community.

Therefore, the three oldest major grass roots organizations have once again taken upon themselves to show some maturity in the field of public service by committing to work close together on issues that are the general interest of our community.

This step has become more important now than ever before due to a constant and consistent growth in the population of Indian Americans. Whereas this growth to the extent of 1.7 million is a matter of pride, it puts extra burden of responsibility on the Community Organizations to maintain the good image of Indians in this country.

The three organizations are: The Association of Indians in America (AIA) founded 1967, the National Federation of Indian Associations (NFIA), started in 19-- and the Indian American Forum for Political Education established in 19---.

The Presidents of the three organizations have been discussing the issue of cooperation for several months and it has been a pleasure for all three of them to work together.

We are looking forward to serve the Asian Indian Community in the future, as we have done in the past, only with more vigor, energy, and with larger resources as a result of this spirit of cooperation.

May God bless America and India.

Dr. Piyush C. Agrawal National President The Association of Indians in America (AIA)

Dr. Parathasarthy Pillai National President The National Federation of Indian Associations (NFIA)

Dr. Lalit Agrawal National President Indian American Forum for Political Education (IAFPE)

For more information, contact Dr. Piyush C. Agrawal at the numbers/address given below.