| It was during a presentation by the members of an evaluation committee at a board meeting of Pakistan’s largest public sector telecom corporation. The spokesperson for the committee was giving reasons for rejecting the highest offer for a lucrative international contract. The grounds he gave were that although the offer was commercially and technically the best, the top bidder - a U.S. based transnational company - was not acceptable because its managing director was an Indian. One of the Board members leafed through the pages of the evaluation report and commented that from what he could glean, the CEO of that particular company was in fact a U.S. citizen. |
| “That’s true,” the spokesperson replied, “but he is Indian by origin.” The board member looked around the table populated by many of Pakistan’s top professionals, and asked: “Gentlemen, is there anyone present here who is not Indian by origin?” |
| That particular, almost apocryphal exchange occurred in Islamabad. It was amplified in an obverse context and on a much larger scale in New Delhi, when in January 2003, India hosted the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to recognize the Indian Diaspora, an extended dis-jointed family system of 20 million persons of Indian origin living (some over many generations) in over 110 countries spread across six continents.[EXTRACT] |
Published in DAWN 5 June 2003, and reprinted in WHEN BSUH COMES TO SHOVE & OTHER WRITINGS (2006). |
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