Miami, FL. March 12, 2002: The three major grassroots Indian Organizations, namely, The Association of Indians in America (AIA) founded in 1967, the National Federation of Indian Associations (NFIA), started in 1980 and the Indian American Forum for Political Education established in 1982 for the first time are joining hands with each other to serve the community on a long range basis and are sponsoring, in cooperation with Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janata Party, a Congressional Lunch on March 21, 2002 at the Capitol Hill from 12:00 Noon to 2:00 PM in Room 340, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC.

A White House briefing also has been arranged on the same day from 3:00 PM to 4:15 PM.

These events were originally planned for October 4, 2001 but had to be postponed due the tragic incidents of September 11.

Idea of joining hands was born on June 04, 2001 when 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 they are dispersing the limited community resources too thinly. The programs have become unnecessary duplication of each other. Some of them are running to the same people in the Administration and in the Congress with conflicting agendas which has created not only confusion but are not conducive to the public service to our community.

Therefore, AIA, NFIA, and IAFPE have taken upon themselves to show some maturity in the field of public service by committing to work close together on issues that are of general interest to our community.

This step of cooperation 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 2.0 million is a matter of pride, it puts extra burden of responsibility on the leadership of these organizations to maintain the good image of Indians in this country. The danger of terrorism has added additional civic responsibility on the leadership.

The Presidents of the three organizations, Dr. Piyush C. Agrawal (AIA), Dr. Parthasarathy Pillai (NFIA), and Dr. Lalit S. Agrawal (IAFPE) have been discussing the issue of cooperation for several months and it has been a pleasure for all three of them to work together.

The three of them strongly believe and are convinced of a long lasting good will among themselves and are looking forward to serve the Asian Indian Community in the future, as they have done in the past, only with more vigor, energy, and with larger resources as a result of this spirit of cooperation.

For further information, please call : Dr. Piyush C. Agrawal of AIA at (954)389-4465, or Dr. Parathasarathy Pillai of NFIA or Dr. Lalit S. Agrawal of IAFPE at (304)925-1830 or Dr. Dinesh K. Agrawal of OFBJP (814)234-3558.