A ‘Shradhanjali’ for Gujarat – By J.M. Shenoy: Feb 24, 2001

When we created TiE , one of our goals was wealth creation,” muses Bakul Joshi on a tony California Sunday afternoon at the Swami Narayan Mandir in Milpitas. “We wanted to create entrepreneurship. Now, we are learning about creating social entrepreneurship,” says Joshi, one of the leaders of The Indus Entrepreneurs, or TiE. He was participating in a shraddhanjali (condolence meeting) for the Gujarat earthquake victims organized by Swami Narayanis (and their association BAPS Care), TiE and over two dozen San Francisco Bay area organizations.

Onus on Pakistan to restore peace in Kashmir: Bodansky – Rediff report, June 12, 2001

Som Chivukula in California For over a decade, Yossef Bodansky has been fiercely attacking Pakistan in his lectures and books, holding Islamabad responsible for escalating terror attacks in the region and for making itself a fountainhead of religious fundamentalism. He brought that message to more than 200 academics, community leaders and politicians who attended a daylong seminar in Fremont, California, recently. Organized by the IndoAmerican Kashmir Forum, the event was called ‘From Paradise to Ideological Battleground’. Unless Pakistan gives up its efforts to acquire Kashmir to makeup for Jinnah’s ‘lost heritage’,there will be no peace and stability in the region, Bodansky said. Getting Kashmir out of Indian hands had always meant for Pakistan a mission to achieve the unfulfilled task of Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

Forum in Newark focuses on bloodshed in war-torn Indian region of Kashmir San Jose Mercury June 10, 2001.

Mercury News Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-dominated region, has become a deadly battleground between India and Islamic fundamentalists who want to take it over, Hira L. Fotedar, the vice-president of Eaton Technology in Michigan, said at a forum Saturday. The event was the Indo-American Kashmir Forum held at the Hilton Hotel in Newark. Once a Himalayan paradise, Kashmir has been torn by bloodshed since India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947.Both countries make claims to it and have fought wars over it. The conflict deepened in 1989, when Muslim Kashmiris fought to end Indian rule, and India waged a battle against them. Pakistan sent mujahedeen veterans of the Afghan-Soviet war to aid the separatists.

A conference on Kashmir titled “From Paradise to Ideological Battleground” – A Report by Asian Age June 12, 2001

Fremont (California), June 12: While Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf’s forthcoming meeting may not yield a “perfect solution”, policy experts, academics, two former US ambassadors to South Asia and a prominent Democrat Congressman agreed that just sitting down together was an essential component in diplomacy between India and Pakistan.”The impulse for peace is very strong,” Washington Democrat Congressman Jim McDermott told an audience at a daylong conference on Kashmir here on Saturday. “There is no perfect solution (to the problem in Kashmir), but if we keep waiting for one and don’t talk, we will never get anywhere,” said Mr. McDermott, a co-chairman of the congressional caucus on India.

Indo-American Youth In Gangs Defy Stereotype – San Jose Mercury News April 9, 2000

In family photos, the young men pose politely in turbans and ties. But in secret snapshots confiscated by police, some of the men reveal a darker side. They stuff assault rifles down their pants, flex their tattooed muscles and flaunt their bare chests. Others point 9mm pistols at each others’ temples and flash gang signs. Police say these 20-somethings belong to three small Indo-American gangs in Alameda and Santa Clara counties the Santa Clara Punjabi Boys, Aim to Kill and the All Indian Mob. Authorities describe their members perhaps as many as 500 mostly Sikh men in Northern California as some of the Bay Area’s most violent offenders. “Their conflicts always result in a stabbing, shooting or beating,” said Dave Lanier, a Fremont police sergeant who also is the region’s foremost expert on Indo-American gangs. Investigators began focusing on the gangs after a series of violent incidents during the past two years

Villaraigosa Appoints Jeevan Zutshi To State Transportation Committee : Jan 31, 2000

Jeevan Zutshi, a longtime community activist and a transportation Engineer with a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from San Jose State University, California has been appointed to the Departmental Transportation Advisory Committee by Speaker of the California State Assembly Antonio Villaraigosa. Term of this appointment is from January 31, 2000 to January 31, 2004.

Indian Americans voice Kashmir concerns in White House: Feb 25, 2000

WASHINGTON, FEB 25: If posterity captures a defining moment that signaled the political coming of age of Indian Americans in the United States, it could be at noon in the year 2000 on a balmy Thursday in Washington. That’s when a group of 33 well-heeled immigrants trooped into the White House to voice their views on the Presidential trip to South Asia at the invitation of the Clinton administration.

Sustained Dialogue The Only Answer – August 8, 1999

This refers to Iftekhar Hai’s opinion carried in the issue of August 5 on Kashmir in San Francisco chronicle. To understand the problem of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) we have to go back to when India became independent and was partitioned, and Pakistan was created in August 1947. Then, there were 565 Princely States, which were given the option to join either India or Pakistan.Legally, there were three points to note on J&K:

Balloting Would Stop Bullets An election in Kashmir could end long conflict : Aug 5, 1999

A PERSISTENT THREAT of war continues to flare up between two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan. The problem is control of Kashmir, and it could be eased simply by letting the people of that disputed territory make a trip to the ballot box. The majority of the American people do not understand why India and Pakistan are at warin Kashmir. The problem dates back to the end of the British empire. A PERSISTENT THREAT of war continues to flare up between two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan. The problem is control of Kashmir, and it could be eased simply by letting the people of that disputed territory make a trip to the ballot box. The majority of the American people do not understand why India and Pakistan are at war in Kashmir. The problem dates back to the end of the British empire.

Growing Influence, Big Plans – A Report by San Jose Mercury Sunday, April 4, 1999

Attorney General Bill Lockyer is scheduled to attend. So is state Sen. Liz Figueroa, and Assemblyman John Dutra, and Milpitas Mayor Henry Manayan. The high-powered guest list for a dinner Friday in the Fremont hills is an obvious sign that the Indo-American Community Federation is an organization with clout, even though most local residents have never heard of the non-profit group.