"There's a class system here" among Indians in America, chided Agnihotri in his trademark blunt style. "Indian Americans do not want to mix with others. One of my jobs is to connect Indians everywhere."

The envoy, who took over his newly created post on Sept. 18 amidst a swirl of controversy in India's parliament that accused Prime Minister Vajpayee of picking a man from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh cadre, made this, his first trip to California as ambassador, Dec. 8 to attend a reception in his honor hosted by the Indian consulate.

He told the gathering at the Gadar Memorial that in the nearly three months he's been on the job, he has visited three Caribbean nations - Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam - all of which have sizeable Indian populations. Much to their credit, the NRIs there, he said, are maintaining their Indian culture and passing it on to their children.

They are, however, experiencing the kind of problems faced by those who are forced to live in a kind of a vacuum, Agnihotri said, and because of that, some are "developing ties to other nations."

To check this, "we have to have a connectivity with them," he said, noting that high up on his priority list was to develop "friendship circles" between NRIs living in different parts of the world, something the president of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, seemed enthusiastic about.

Agnihotri said Jagdeo has committed to having a function in New York some time soon to bring NRIs together.

Perhaps mindful of the bickerings and divisions among Indian American organizations in California and elsewhere, the ambassador suggested that they bury their differences and help him in his plan to have a "Council of Indian Americans," an umbrella organization that would embrace NRIs of every political, professional and cultural stripe.

He said that there are currently 300 Indian American organizations in Houston alone, and 700 in New York. In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, he said, a number of Indian American organizations raised a total of around $10 million for the World Trade Center victims, but because the money was sent in fragments from each of those organizations, nobody realized just what a powerhouse the Indian American community was.

"How much more powerful it would have been if the recipients were told that this money is from the Indian American community," Agnihotri said, adding: "I'm looking not necessarily for the promotion of Indians, but for the promotion of India."

The 68-year-old Agnihotri quit his job as chancellor of Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, La., just one day before he began his job as ambassador.

Prior to his chancellorship, he worked at the school for 10 years as dean, a job his professional and academic credentials helped him snag. Agnihotri worked as an additional District and Sessions judge in New Delhi. He resigned that job and came to the U.S. in 1975 and earned two advanced degrees in law from UC Berkeley and New York University.

While in Baton Rouge, Agnihotri was active in the community, working with a number of Indian American groups, as well as mainstream organizations.

He has won many international awards for his activism. The State of Louisiana declared May 12, 1995 as "Agnihotri Day" for his contributions.

When not travelling, Agnihotri will work out of his office in New York with a 10-member staff. He urged NRIs to e-mail their concerns to him at: AmbAgnihotri@aol.com

- nriol.com report

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