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The protesters, who launched a 'long march' from New Orleans to Washington -- a distance of 1,500 kms, on Tuesday, alleged that the Indian government failed to protect them.
They are expected to reach Washington DC on March 26 to meet Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen in their search for justice.
"We write in response to your seven-day-long silence, followed by a 97-word letter that adds insult to the workers' injury as survivors of human trafficking. Apparently 18 months of human trafficking merited less than 100 words from you," the workers have said in a letter.
The Indian workers have made a number of demands, including asking the Ambassador to pressurise the US State Department to restrict travel to India for their employer Signal International's US recruiters.
They also want India to put pressure on the US government to halt any expansion of the guest worker programme until both governments have adopted an agreement that reflects the interests of workers, as well as companies and recruiters.
"These workers received a harsh education in the caste system of the United States," said Soni, also Director of the New Orleans Workers' Centre for Racial Justice.
"The Indian government must look these workers in their face and decide: On what terms is India willing to send its citizens to become indentured servants in the United States?" he said in a statement.
The workers quit their job in a Mississippi shipyard and sued the employer demanding ‘tens of millions of dollars’ in damages for allegedly bringing them to the US on a false promise of permanent residency and forcing them to work under inhuman conditions.
"You leave us no choice but to launch a 'satyagraha' so that the truth will come to light and justice will be served. My doors are always open to any of my fellow citizens of India," Sen had said in a letter to Saket Soni of the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity.
"I am willing to receive you and other Indian workers at my office at a mutually convenient date and time to see how legitimate grievances and concerns could be met," Sen had said in the March 17 letter, adding that a report submitted by Indian officials on the matter is being examined.
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RatingThis has nothing to do with Hindi or Tamil or Tamizh. When you have reservations governing the abroad postings, you cannot hope for anything more. The poor guy is intimidated by the presence of someone else who is better than him. This is where the power he wields comes to the forefront. I have seen the Embassy working at very close quarters and it is just next to pathetic. In fact it is one of the most profitable embassy and yet the way upkeeping of it drives you to shame!!!
funny that these guys were willing to take US green cards and live here, but hold indian embassy responsible for not siding with them.
I really like your reply and approach. Sir, I was an Indian Citizen. FYI, Indian passport renewals are done in the U.S., itself at our embassy. EVEN assuming that I had a green card at that time, yet my citizenship was Indian, and MUST travel only with Indian passport. It clearly shows that you have taken offense to my letter for my inability to speak Hindi nothing different from that draded employee. Good sir, by the way are you also working in one of the Indian Embassies abroad???
Embassy officials have the time to go ONLY for shopping and lack BASIC courtesy. I want to give my experience here. I was talking to an official at our Embassy (many years ago) and suddenly he started talking in Hindi. I am NOT telling that talking in Hindi to an Indian is wrong as it is one of our national languages.I know that. But, unfortunately, I did not learn Hindi and I know only Tamil and English. But when I insisted that he talk in English he was rude and told me that is given in quotes (said in English by him) "So after coming to U.S, you forgot Hindi. Is it not? Madam you are only here 6 years but how can you forget Hindi. Are you ashamed to talk in Hindi, etc. Then I told him the exact words "One can ONLY forget if s/he knew or have that knowledge. When I have not learned Hindi at all at the FIRST place how can I forget???" Then came the harsh words, you better quit Indian citizenship. I did but NOT because of his words but he made me come there many times for NO reasons..
Hi Savithri, I am not advocating you to learn Hindi. However, I don't know why Tamils object to Hindi and easily give up their Tamil for English. I have met several (Hindi-opposing) Tamil families, whose children speak ONLY English. Why this double standard? If Tamils truely love their mother-language Tamil, then they should preserve it even after coming to English speaking countries. I think learning English is beneficial for integration at an international level and learning Hindi is beneficial to integrate us on a national level. Afterall, Hindi and Tamil are sisters which were born from mother Sanskrit. Lets make India strong by avoiding such anti-India politics. Me and my wife decided to learn Tamil to communicate with Tamils in Indian language. Our tuition was refunded by the school which offers Indian languages courses, and informed us that nobody from the Tamil community has come forward to teach Tamil. There were few others like us to give respect to Indian language Tamil. Do Tamils really love and respect Tamil language? I know some people have no sense, whether they serve in Indian embassay or any other embassay. They should be removed from such services.
Although this does NOT belong to this forum, I beg to correct you that original Tamilzh (not Tamil, BTW) was NOT born to sanskrit. the original Tamilzh is older to Sanskrit and one of the classical languages. I don't know abiout Hindi in this regard....And, BTW, what we speak at home is NOT Tamilzh as it is corrupted with lots of Sanskrit words; for example, there is Nno JA in jaya (no Ja sound) and it is latchumi and not lakshmi. You must get full refund for being taught wrong Tamil to you. It is possible that one of our people would have taught Tamil to you as we speak with lots of Sanskrit mix, and which is NOT Tamilzh. It our OWN Bashai (language), again this is not Tamil. So better get FULL refund and ask s/he to pay penalty for teaching wrong Tamilzh. The Tamil spoken now and most of the words cannot be found in Tamilzh literature. It is a recent mix up by our people...our apologies for corrupting the language.
Mr. Jasiwal, from the quotes of your letter: "Why Tamils object to Hindi and easily give up their Tamil for English. I have met several (Hindi-opposing) Tamil families, whose children speak ONLY English." While I am a proud mother whose children speak Tamil (not Tamilzh) with FULL mix of Sanskrit and English words that have NO place in Tamilzh as this language was corrupted from 17th century onwards. To be honest my children speak NOT tamilzh but OUR Tamil Bashai (language), customized to our convenience. This is sad truth (at the same time appreciating Hindi speaking parents for their children speaking Hindi) that the language spoken in Chennai is NOT at all Tamilzh. It is one of the most corrupted languages in the world. To other question, why no one came to teach Tamilzh is simple: WE just don't know how to teach Tamilzh. Maybe we can teach Tamil or Tamil-ish but that too only for speaking purposes in Chennai ALONE, and NOT in the districts. My apologies for NOT learning Tamilzh, but learning Tamil Bashai maybe due to my parents and the local POPULAR print media who made us (also me) believe that what they write is Tamilzh in their magazines...it is CERTAINLY NOT....Now, I know but too late to correct my mistakes...
The Ambassdors and foreign services personnel must learn that they are civil servants meant to look after the problems of Indian citizens living abroad.They are there not humiliate but to serve indian citzens who pay for their fat salaries.Ministry of External Affairs should set rigorous standards for the embassy stff . Those who do'nt help or are arrogant , must be called back.
The recruting companies should make sure that the laborlaws of USA need to be respected. The unskilled workers are likely to be used and abused. Thisis most likely ignored by Government officials because they are worried about their job securities. The external affair department should recruit government officials who are true representative of the people.I totally understand the plight of the workers.as I was a victim of this scam
US Embassies abroad are for US citizens but Indian missions abroad suck the Indians blood.
He and ALL READERS are 100% right. Ask any Indian (or any person irrespective of the country of origin) who has taken U.S. Citizenship the following. Let us say that s/he lost her/his passport, money, etc... the local US Consular officals WOULD take care of their CUSTODY, including attend to any emergency medical, hotel stay, flight arrangements, etc and support them, and issue a temp. permit to go US. YES, it is not FREE, and for ALL the amount they spent on us we pay back (or have to pay) BUT HAPPILY with a BIG SMILE!!!
Indian Embassy in Washington and other consulates in US are den of corruption. They exploit thier own nationals and extort money for renewal of passports, issuing duplicate passports and other consular services which is obligatory for them. They spend thousands of dollors on living and having parties in the name of India and Indian nationals. Let Indian police dare to arrest any US citizen in India the US embassy in Delhi intervene in the matter and get release its citizen and pressure the Indian government to drop the charges or cases against the US citizens.
This is the person with head called MPs in India headless chicken. I think now we know why he addressed MPs headless chicken. He probably saw himself on a mirror without a head, so he called MPs headless chicken. Mr. Sen if you have a head, you should take an action. Otherwise find a neurosurgeon who can find a head and fix it on you!
India wants ONLY your money, NOT you, my dear young men!
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