iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
The Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) has raised issues and policy matters important for Indian Americans before the 118th Congress, the speaker of the house, and recently elected India Caucus leadership. FIIDS has stressed and urged the India Caucus to focus on critical issues like immigration, the US-India partnership, countering terrorism, establishing peace, climate change and international treaties.
FIIDS congratulated Representatives Ro Khanna and Mike Waltz in its communique, for their new leadership role in the India Caucus and urged them to “Increase grace period for laid off H1B visa holders to 6-12 months to maintain their legal status, avoiding disruptions to their families and children during the recession.”
Requesting the Congress to stop Injustice to high tech immigrants, FIIDS has stated: “Though Indian immigrants are a 30% of the workforce building most advancements in the tech industry that provides an international edge to the USA, the Indian tech professionals are stagnant like bonded laborers for more than 50-60 years due to country-wise green card (GC, permanent residency) limit for processing hundreds of thousands of backlogs. Hence, we urge elected officials and executives to work to pass HR 3648 Eagle Act 2022 and also clear the backlogged GC processing.”
The growing incidents of hate crime against Indian Americans and the campaign of misinformation the community was also taken up by FIIDS in its appeal to the elected representatives: “We observe that in this land of liberty and freedom, there is a vicious campaign of negative propaganda against India and the Indian-origin religions, resulting not only in friction in otherwise smooth US-India relations but also increased incidents of ethnic and religious discrimination, bias and hate crimes against Indian Americans in general and Hindu-Sikh communities in specific. We request investigative agencies’ help as well as legislative help in stopping hateful misinformation campaigns and the entities behind the campaigns.”
Another issue of concern mentioned in its appeal is terror funding and military aid to Pakistan: “Due to Pakistan’s ongoing sheltering and support to terrorist groups engaged in acts of terrorism in the US, India, and Europe, we request stop any further military aid to Pakistan and monitor Pakistan by adding to watch list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the watchdog of terrorist funding.”
FIIDS has also pressed for inclusive policies that would grant cultural recognition to Indian Americans: “To include Indian Americans in the mainstream, we request inclusive policies, resolutions recognizing cultural festivals like Diwali – Holi, Sewa Diwali, heritage months, honoring personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda, as well as contributions from Indian American charity organizations, like Sewa International which did humongous work during Covid-19.”
The organization has also urged them “to work with Congress and the Biden administration on the US-India partnership, tech-legal immigration, countering terrorism, establishing peace, climate change and international treaties”.
The other request made by FIIDS is to expedite the appointment of an ambassador to India. On the US-India Strategic Partnership, the organization has stated: “We appreciate there is a bi-partisan agreement that India is a global strategic partner and both Democrats and Republicans supported partnerships like the IndoPacific Quad as well as I2U2. We request continuing support for any initiatives related to the same as well as strengthening joint ventures with India in various areas like energy, startups, military manufacturing, nuclear. We also request your help to permanently remove India from any time consideration under Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).”
