Honour the Aam Aadmi

Fareed Zakaria, Mauritian Vice-President Abdool Raouf Bundhun, Majid Uddin Kazi, personal physician to Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd—there are some of the big names to have won the Pravasi Diwas awards. Former CEC and Rajya Sabha Member MS Gill has no issue with this list but feels the honour is going only to the “rich and famous”. So he shot off a letter to Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi last week expressing his views and citing the story of Bhairavi Desai, the PIO who co-founded the New York Taxi Workers Alliance nine years ago. He felt she deserved the award. Given Ravi’s own leanings, Desai is in with a big chance.