Indo-American Community Federation, kick-off, Unity Dinner 2004 You are invited to join us for dinner on Wednesday, December 10 starting at 7:30 p.m. at our home in Fremont Vineyard hills. Fremont City Manager Jan Perkins, Deputy City Manager Dave Millican, and Neighborhood Resource Manager Claudia Albano will meet to talk with us about the health of our Fremont community including the current economic climate and the challenges ahead. It will prove to be an interesting, and enlightening evening. This will also kick-off our Unity Dinner 2004 (unity in Diversity), third annual event of Indo-American Community Federation, to be held on Friday, January 23, 2004 in Fremont Marriott.

I wish to introduce you to the largest India Community Center in the country located in our own backyard here. The Center is the brain child of Godhwani brothers and the vision is to have a similar center in all major parts of North America. The Center is non-religious and non-political for the entire Indian Community. With 2500 members already in place within an effort of less than 8 months, I have no doubt about ICC being The Center for Indians in North America. There is something for everyone every day!

Congressman Frank Pallone recently hosted a hearing on Capitol Hill to apprise Congressional aides about the lot of Kashmiri Pandits. Despite his unstinting support for India on Capitol Hill, the New Jersey Democrat and founder and former co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans has never shied away from faulting New Delhi for its apathy towards Pandits who fled the Kashmir valley following terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir.

Members of Congress have heard a graphic account of ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and moderate Muslims from Kashmir at the hands of Pakistan-backed Jihadis mostly sent across the Line of Control and some converted to their cause in the Valley. National Director of the Indo-American Kashmir Forum Jeevan Zutshi said at a conference sponsored by Congressman Frank Pallone, founder and former Co-Chairman of the India Caucus yesterday that in 1990, 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and moderate Muslims had to flee Kashmir for their lives to neighbouring parts of India.

Washington D.C: A leader of a Hindu Kashmiri group related to a conference here stories of violence and ethnic cleansing in Kashmir by Pakistan backed Jihadis, mostly sent across the Line of Control.In 1990, 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and moderate Muslims had to flee Kashmir to neighboring parts of India, and several have been forced to live in wretched camps in subhuman conditions, Jeevan Zutshi, national Director of Indo-American Kashmir Forum,told the Oct. 30 conference sponsored by Congressman Frank Pallone, and the Congressional Caucus on Indo-Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a dedicated member of the Kashmiri-American community, Jeevan Zutshi, for his years of tireless work on behalf of Kashmir.In 1986, Mr. Zutshi began a Kashmiri Overseas Association Chapter in California and was elected as the Association’s national Vide-President in 1989. Mr. Zutshi was instrumental in helping to initiate and organize a series of fundraisers for Kashmiri refugees immediately following the exodus of 300,000 Pandits from Kashmir in 1990, the first of which was held in his hometown of Fremont, CA.

India and the United States need to build a strong defence relationship on the lines of NATO, a leading US Congressman Frank Pallone has said. Pallone, who was here for a fundraising event hosted by local activist and Kashmiri leader, Jeevan Zutshi, said, “I believe it is very difficult to develop a true close relationship with another country, unless there is a defence relationship.””I honestly believe that we are going to see the day when there is going to be a formal defence treaty arrangement, maybe something like NATO. It could be a South Asian alliance, with India leading other countries of the region into some kind of formal military alliance with the United States,” Pallone, co-founder of India Caucus,

Fremont : It was a very special day here in Northern California, USA when all local Indian ‘groups’ put up a celebration of India’s independence day parade on Sunday, August 17, 2003. Kashmiri Pandits celebrated the independence day by having a float that was called “Kashmir Paradise on Earth”. It contained a kashmiri bride and bridegroom, a hukka-smoking man, a pandit ji blessing the crowd, and a bunch of teenagers and teen-at-heart singing and dancing Bombro-Bombro, seated in a shikara on a lotus decked lake, tastefully painted by volunteers. The boat had a swag of ‘hill’ (moss) hanging at its tail as well.

Sharon Davis, wife of Gov. Gray Davis, will deliver one of the keynote speeches at a Jan. 24 Fremont dinner that organizers say will celebrate the area’s diversity and send a message of peace and unity. About 500 people, including a number of elected officials, are expected to attend the second Unity Dinner at the Fremont Marriott Hotel. “With 140 languages spoken in Fremont, once a year, we are having this celebration to set the tone and bring together our diverse communities,” said Jeevan Zutshi, the organizer of the event”. “Compared to other places in the world, we are uncommonly united in Fremont where we know how important it is to understand different cultures.”

That’s the theory behind a proposed partnership between the United States and India to build universities that would teach meditation and peace-building strategies based on ancient practices and modern science. The primary backer of the project — which includes a 40,000-student university in India and an 8,000-student university in the United States — will detail his plan for the first time Friday night at the third annual Unity Dinner, sponsored by the Fremont-based IndoAmerican Community Federation.