Say it with flowers: Gandhigiri for US green cards
Indian Express
Jayanth Jacob / July 11, 2007

Taking a cue from the film, Lage Raho Munnabhai, about 2,000 bouquets of flowers are being sent to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (US CIS) by people whose green card applications have reportedly been held up.

It is another matter that this Gandhigiri, which began from today, does not seem to be working. The US CIS has issued a statement stating that they have made “arrangements to forward those flowers to our injured service members recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at Bethesda Naval Hospital.” These hospitals in Washington DC treat soldiers wounded in US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The protestors, who have united under a common banner called Emigration Voice, have alleged “flip-flop by the US CIS wherein the agency halted accepting of employment-based visa applications just weeks after announcing availability of visas”.

Despite the US officials’ decision to forward the bouquets, Emigration Voice members said they would go ahead with their programme. However, they plan to attach a note stating that the “flowers the hospitals will receive are not because of US CIS’s heartfelt sentiments, but was a face-saving tactic instead.”

Robinder Sachdev, coordinator of the protest initative, said: “We will be sending bouquets over the next three days to register our protest.” Three kinds of bouquets, each in the price range of $20-39, will be sent. The cost will be borne by the senders.

“Considering that a huge number of people have been affected, there could be more bouquets,” said Sachdev, who is also the co-founder of US India Political Action Committee, a pressure group. “There are millions of affected parties in countries like India, China and Mexico, and we are doing a unique counter-protest for a pressing cause,” he added.