The great North-South divide at PBD!

But the "ill-treatment" did not seem to stop at that. The hotel staff, where the entire contingent had landed in one go, was even more curt. "There was hardly any hospitality from any of the staff towards the guests. Had this have happened in our coutnry (Malaysia), we would have got the person out of the job immediately," said Thangaperumal, Assistant Director of Malaysian Education department.

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"We were all thrilled that this time PBD was in our homeland Chennai and we came with great hopes. But it was just too disappointing to see the treatment being meted out to us the MOIA, state government, immigration staff, police men, hotel staff and even the  PBD officials but even by," lamented Karuppiah Pandy.

Even at the PBD sessions, the Malaysian Indians felt that they where shorn of opportunities to present their views and woes. "We had been so much neglected this time that we were not even let to voice out our views," said L.Selva Mohan, Engineer, who was the part of the Malaysian Indian Congress team. "When I tried to bring this to the notice of the government officials at one of the state sessions, I was literally silenced. While they let the "White men" (those from the US and Canada) talk, they  literally asked me to sit down when I tried to highlight the issue."

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"Even the food served during the three-day event was tuned to serve people north Indian NRIs and there was hardly any southern cuisine," said Thangaperumal

The PBD held this time, had a large participation from south-east asia and a tad lesser involvement from the NRIs living in the western part of the world. Even the Union minister of overseas affairs Vayalar Ravi acknowledged the fact that the participation of US Indians was very low compared to previous events though the overall count of visiors this year saw a fifty per cent rise.

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But it was interesting to note that the "north-Indian" NRIs had a different story to tell. Inder Singh, President, Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin, felt that the fewer participation of the US and UK Indians was mainly due to the wrong choice of the venue.  "The Hyderabad PBD event was a disaster and that experience was enough to put people off from attending any MOIA event in the South.  Despite the economic crisis taking its toll on people's travel, many desisted from attending the seventh PBD owing to the venue," he avowed.

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Though it is still unclear as to what amounts to neglect to these global Indians, the much-hyped North-South divide of the country still seems to be entrenched in the minds, be it  within India or outside.

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