Jagdeo did not seek NY Parade Invitation

Aug 12, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I am responding to Mr. Malcolm Harripaul’s missive (KN Aug 9) accusing President Bharrat Jagdeo of among other things: 1. seeking an invitation to attend the India Day Parade (organized by FIA) in NY on Aug 21. 2. demanding an invitation to dinner with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 3. ringing the bell of the Stock Exchange 4. planning to bring PPP Presidential candidate Donald Ramotar to the parade.  None of these accusations has any truth.  They are fictions of Harripaul’s vivid imagination.  The President’s attendance at the parade was widely publicized in the NY Guyanese ethnic media.  Harripaul may have read about the President’s attendance at the parade and then put his mind and pen to work in fictional writing. I have knowledge of the background to the Jagdeo’s invitation and let me state up front that the President never showed an inkling of interest in coming to the parade.
The parade has been held annually since 1980 to celebrate India’s independence.  I am very familiar with the parade activities having been affiliated with executives of the parade since its inception in 1980 and assisted those with whom I and my colleague, Mr. Ramesh Kalicharran, have had a working relationship. We have worked together with Indian nationals on programs, events, and festivals that benefit Guyana, Guyanese and the Caribbean. Several of these individuals assisted us in the struggle for the restoration of democracy in Guyana – facilitating Dr. Jagan’s meeting with Jimmy Carter and DNC’s Chairman Brown, etc.
As a journalist, I reported on the parade annually penning some half a dozen articles on it each year. I marched in the parades with colleagues Baytoram Ramharack, Vassan Ramracha, etc., distributing literature on human rights violations in Guyana during the dictatorship and calling on India to pressure the Burnham/Hoyte dictatorship to hold free and fair elections. The organizers gave us much needed moral support. At times, Ravi Dev and Arjune Karshan joined us in the marches as did Pandit Ramlall and others. The parade started small and has grown to over a quarter million in attendance.  Guyanese and other Indo-Caribbean artistes (organized by Kali) perform at the parade and thousands more line the parade route to catch a glimpse of their favorite Bollywood stars who usually grace the parade as Grand Marshall. Since the parade used to be the largest gathering of Guyanese outside of Guyana, we used it to inform Guyanese of what was happening in their country under the dictators and solicited their assistance to fight the dictatorship. My colleagues and I also used the
parade as a platform to internationalize our struggle against the dictatorship from 1980 thru 1992. For a few years, our groups sponsored floats at the parade.  Mr. Ramesh Kalicharran sponsored a float for his group of companies.  Mr. Vishnu Bandhu sponsored a float for the United Republican Party.
We are very thankful and grateful to the FIA for our participation in the parade which they allow up till this day. Over time, my colleagues have dropped their interest in the parade.
But Kali and myself have retained our contacts and continue to assist the organizers every year. Our mission has been to bring together Indians of diverse nationalities and consolidate the ties that bind us and to work together to expand benefits for all immigrant communities in America. Toward this objective, Kali and I have sought greater participation of Indo-Caribbeans at FIA events as well as those organized by other Indian organizations such as AIA (which organizes the Diwali festival that draws over a hundred thousand) and GOPIO (which organizes international conventions of people of Indian origin). We urged and lobbied organizers to invite prominent Indo-Caribbean personalities as Chief Guests, believing this would elevate the profile of Indo-Caribbean communities vis-a-vis nationals from India. It was in this connection that Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar and President Jagdeo were invited to the parade as Chief Guest.  We lobbied for those invitations as we did for former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday and the late Cheddi Jagan. Their presence serves our (Indo-Caribbean and Guyanese-American) purposes.
Instead of being proud of our achievements, Harripaul makes the organizers think twice about us. It is people like Harripaul who are undermining the progress we have made in bringing various communities together by rendering the organizers of these events into disrepute.  He has made our goals more difficult to achieve and he does not know the damage he has done in eroding progress we have made in inter-community relations for selfish propagandistic reasons to garner support for the PNC.  There is nothing wrong in Harripaul joining Hamilton Green in canvassing support for the PNC. But he should not have linked his propaganda with the organization and undermine Guyanese-American community work in America.
Based on the above facts, I can state categorically that Jagdeo did not seek an invitation to the parade. One was issued to him through the request of Guyanese-Americans who facilitated it. Jagdeo did not seek an invitation for dinner with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who is not a guest at the parade.
Jagdeo did not request to ring the NASDAQ bell but the organizers have been granted permission to ring the bell. As best as we know, Mr. Ramotar has not expressed an interest to join in the parade but the organizers have informed us that Mr. Ramotar is welcomed to the parade and its related events.  Let me note, through the efforts of Kali, the FIA invited President Jagdeo to the parade several times and he declined citing conflict in schedule.
I urge Harripaul to stop his wild imaginations and verify facts before making libelous accusations. He has embarrassed Guyanese-Americans with his concoctions.
Vishnu Bisram

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