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Clinton's Gujarat visit commences today Wednesday, April 4, 2001
AHMEDABAD: On Wednesday, when Bill Clinton sets his foot on the soil of Gujarat, which shook violently a little over two months ago, Gujaratis settled in the United States will be cheering pulling off a public relations coup of sorts.
The commissioner of the American India Foundation, Mike Patel, which is organising the visit, said, "Clinton's presence in Gujarat will be a great boost to our fund raising efforts for the earthquake victims, if some family plans to give us $5,000 , I am sure they will now be giving $15,000 instead".
And for the Gujarat government , which had been seeing the inflow of funds coming down to a trickle two months after the earthquake, the Clinton visit comes as another opportunity to bring back focus on the extensive devastation caused by the earthquake. Says Dr Sudhir Parikh of the Indian-American National Foundation, "the earthquake has been off the front pages of US newspapers and prime time television for some time now , this visit will again bring the issue to centre stage".
Clinton, who arrived in Delhi on Tuesday evening will reach Bhuj in Kutch at around noon on Wednesday and visit Ratnal and Anjar before reaching Ahmedabad in the evening. On Thursday, he will meet representatives of nine NGOs engaged in earthquake relief and also discuss the channelising of funds from the US to Gujarat with government representatives led by Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel.
The fund raising efforts in the USA is being coordinated by the Indian community , especially those of Gujarat origin, who comprise 63 per cent of the total Indian expatriates , according to the latest census figures. Dr Suvas Desai, a trustee of the AIF, said the foundation's immediate aim was to raise $ 20 million for rebuilding of 40 destroyed villages.All this money will be routed to the NGOs working in specific areas of health, education , rebuilding and employment generation . "The ultimate aim is to collect $50 million", he said.
Organisers gave the example of several successful Indian businessmen who had given huge sums for the earthquake victims and responded well to the fund-raising programmes being supported by the likes of Deepak Chopra, M C Hammer and Jennifer Lopez. Clinton himself had agreed to attend the fund-raisers at 6 different venues , the first of which was at Silicon Valley where $7 million were raised. "This tragedy has united the entire Indian community in the US , its not something which affected just the Gujaratis", said Digvijay Gaekwad from Florida.
Mike Patel said in one case, a successful Indian woman, Lata Krishnan had promptly paid the AIF $1million when she heard about the earthquake. "These people have made it pretty big in the US, but they don't forget where they come from ", he said. Asked why the AIF had chosen to support the NGOs , rather than putting the money in the government's relief fund, Patel said, "we are an NGO and we would like to deal with NGOs, but we could fund the government if it comes up with a good project".
The AIF members said they were also lobbying actively with the Congressional Caucus on India for a $100 million assistance to India from the US government. However, for this, the Indian government will have to first write to the US administration seeking financial assistance .The AIF is also banking heavily on powerful organisations like the Asian American Hoteliers Association (AAHA) which owns more than half of the hotels across the USA. AAHA representative, Preeti Patel said the association had already contributed $5 million so far for the earthquake.
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