IMC-USA reveals an impressive array of speakers for its convention
July 26, 2004
Chicago, IL: "The momentum for the IMC-USA annual convention is building. I addressed a meeting in Milwaukee yesterday and many Indians are preparing to drive down to Chicago for the August 7th landmark event," declared Dr. Shaik Ubaid, President of IMC-USA, speaking to the leaders of Immigrant and African American communities of Chicago and northern Indiana on July 25th in Chicago.
The Keynote speaker will be Lord Adam Patel of Blackburn, Member of the House of Lords and Chief patron of Council of Indian Muslims, UK.
Other speakers for various sessions at the day long event include:
Dr. K.P. Singh, Eminent Dalit leader, Chairperson, International Association of the Advancement of Dalits.
Shrikumar Poddar, Distinguished Hindu Scholar, Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment.
Dr. Omar Khalidi, Independent Scholar of MIT, Specializing in contemporary Indian Muslim History.
Manzoor Ghori, Founder and Chairman, Indian Muslim Relief and Charities, IMRC.
John Prabhudoss, Indian Christian leader and head of PIFRAS, a think tank on South Asia.
Patrick Haithcox, Representative of Amnesty International.
Dr.Javeed Akhter, Chicago area Representative of Human Rights Watch.
Attorney Asim Ghafoor, Washington Expert and Lobbyist.
Kannan Srinivasan, Renowned historian and journalist.
Dr. Lise McKean, Ph.D., Eminent scholar specializing in Political Economy of the Hindutva Nationalist movement.
Nishrin Hussain, Human Rights activist & daughter of the slain former Indian MP. Ahsan Jafri.
Dr.Rahul Deepankar, Prominent Buddhist Leader.
Muqtedar Khan, Political Scientist.
Dr. Kamala Visweswaran, Anthropologist and Social Activist.
Prof. Hari Sharma, South Asia Expert and President of SANSAD and INSAF.
Kaleem Kawaja, Indian Muslim Leader and former President of Association of Indian Muslims.
Sapna Gupta, NRI’s for Secular and Harmonious India (NRI-SAHI).
Rajinder Singh Mago, Sikh Leader.
Dr. Shaik Ubaid, President IMC-USA and Many others
The convention is expected to become an annual tradition for scholars, activists and all concerned about the brutal siege of India’s pluralist and democratic ethos by Hindutva nationalists.
Eminent personalities will not only be addressing the delegates during the evening banquet and daytime sessions, but will also hold consultative meetings on how to strengthen India’s secular democracy and promote social justice and economic prosperity.
Leaders of secular coalitions such as George Abraham from NRI-SAHI and Imtiaz Uddin from Building Bridges will be taking part in the deliberations.
Jumana Qamruddin, a World Bank expert, will address the focused session on NGOs.
"Last year’s IMC-USA convention was unique and a huge success in that for the first time, all the groups that constitute India’s beautiful diversity came together to analyze the dangers to India’s democracy and to offer solutions," said M. A. Khan, President IMC-USA greater Washington DC chapter and member of convention program committee. "We are planning to build on that success and continue to work to safeguard India’s pluralist ethos and to help in the progress of India and Indo-US relations," Khan declared.
For more information and to register, delegates and journalists are requested to visit:
http://www.imc-usa.org/convention2004
Phone: 630-926-2881
E-mail: chicago@imc-usa.org
