On the 14th of April, 2002, a Dinner Reception in
Honor of His Excellency Dr. Bhishma Kumar Agnihotri, the Indian Ambassador-at-Large - NRI
/ PIO Affairs and Adviser to the Indian Embassy in Washington, by Anjuman e Najmi, Toronto
Canada at Al Masjid-us-Saifee.
The Honorable Ambassador-at-large, who is currently based in New York, was in Canada for 2
days on a short visit and had graciously accepted our community's invitation to visit our
Masjid in Toronto, inspite of his tight schedule.
Mr. Agnihotri serves as a liaison between the rapidly growing Indian Diaspora and the
Indian government. The number of non-resident Indians worldwide is estimated at 20
million, 1.67 million of them in the U.S.
The 68-year-old Ambassador-at-large, the First to be appointed by the Indian Government
last year in the year 2001, has also held the position of Chancellor of Southern
University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the US.
Anjuman e Najmi had also invited several Dignitaries and VIPs from other Indian and
Non-Indian Organizations based in Toronto for this occasion. Mr. Agnihotri arrived at the
Masjid at 8:30 pm along with Indian Consuls, Mr. Balachandra Naik and Mr. Krishnan
Khetrapal from the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
The honorable guests were receieved by Janab Aamilsaheb of Toronto, Shaikh Zohairbhai
Qasimali, Shk. Mansur bhai Kanchwala(Secretary) and other members of Toronto Jamaat.
Mr. Agnihotri was escorted to the Masjid Complex where a Small Picture and collage
exhibition had been prepared by Shabab members, depicting various aspects and
accomplishments of our worldwide Dawoodi Bohra community worldwide under the spiritual
guidance of our beloved Aqa Moula TUS.
The reception program commenced with Quran majeed Tilaawat by Shk. Ameer Mewa, followed by
a rendition of the Indian National Anthem by Toronto Head Muallim. A brief introduction on
our community was given by Shk. Zulfiqar Zakir.
Janab Aamilsaheb gave a eloquent speech in a very fluent use of the Hindi language.
Aamilsaheb mentioned about the 1200 year history of Mumineen in India.
Aamilsaheb relayed the sentiments of the Indian Muslim community who had been pained to
see the effects of the recent spate of violence in the Indian State of Gujarat and
requested the Ambassador-at-large to relay these sentiments to the Indian Government.
He also relayed the Message of Peace of Aqa Moula TUS to the Ambassador and also mentioned
about the recent Ashara Mubaraka in the city of Indore in India where Hundreds of
Thousands of Mumineen had gathered from all over the world or the occasion.
Dr. Agnihotri was then called to address.
He acknowledged the fluency of the Hindi spoken by Janab Aamilsaheb and confessed that
after living in the US for 30 years, he no longer spoke in fluent Hindi and thus decided
to address the community in English.
He spoke about the idea of building bridges on various fronts and also emphasized the need
for the Indian community to initiate steps to do better Personal Relations(PR) work as a
supplement to that undertaken by the Indian Embassy.
Dr. Agnihotri dwelled upon the hot topic of dual citizenship and answered a few questions
with regards to Persons of Indian Origin(PIO) being able to get Indian citizenship or not.
He also acknowledged that most probably, the law of Dual citizenship will come into effect
by end of this year 2002.
He than elaborated on his specific role as Ambassador at Large to become Ambassador of the
NRI/PIOs living worldwide.
A Question and answer session was held, where concerns related to the current situation in
India and other topics were raised by the audience and answered by Mr. Agnihotri.
Mr Agnihotri was then presented a Shawl, some books on our culture and copies of the
newspaper clippings from the recent ten days of Ashara Mubaraka in Indore.
Dinner was served after this followed by a photos session.
Photos can be viewed at:
http://malumaat.com/archives/akhbar1423/toronto/index1.html
More photos are also posted on http://www.torontojamat.com
Wassalam,
Mu. Murtaza Rasheed
As instructed by Anjuman e Najmi Toronto. |
