Nirupama Rao takes
up plight of Tri-Valley
students with Hillary
AZIZ HANIFFA
review, and as I said, this scamming
institution has now been closed
down by Justice authorities,” she
said.
The ambassador’s letter to Clinton
followed her meetings with senior
officials of the Department of
Homeland Security, including Jane
Holl Lute, deputy secretary, DHS.
Virander Paul, the Indian
embassy’s minister for press and
information, said in a statement that
Rao had ‘reiterated that the Indian
students of Tri-Valley University
have undergone hardship since the
closure of the university and their
cases be viewed in their totality with
understanding and in a fair and rea-
sonable manner.’
The issue had been discussed in
meetings between senior DHS offi-
cials, Department of State, US
According to an embassy statement following this
meeting, US officials had informed the Indian
embassy officials that of more than 1,000 students
who were being considered for transfer to other uni-
versities, 435 transfers were approved, 145 were
denied and about an equal number were issued
Notices of Intention to Deny. The remaining transfer
cases, according to the US officials, were still under
examination.
PARESH GANDHI
Indian Ambassador Nirupama Rao’s
letter to Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton expressing concern over the
plight of Indian students whose status
remains in limbo after the closure of
the Tri-Valley University, California,
is under review and will be responded
to soon, the State Department has
said.
Clinton’s spokeswoman Victoria
Nuland said October 26 that the law-
maker had received Rao’s letter “and
we are reviewing that letter, and we
intend to answer it.”
Nuland said since the federal
authorities shut down Tri-Valley,
January 11, “We’ve also been working
very hard. We have told Indian
authorities, to try to find other places
in the United States for these stu-
dents who got scammed. As of
October 19, 435 of the 1,500 former
Tri-Valley University students were
approved to be processed for transfer to other univer-
sities. Of the remaining cases, some students could
not be placed, but we’re continuing to work on this
issue.”
Nuland was defensive when asked if there was an
investigation into what went wrong within the State
Department, since the visas for these students to
come to the US were issued by US consular officers in
India, and the students came over to the country with
legitimate documentation even though Tri-Valley
duped them.
“We issue visas on the basis of documentation that
we get from institutions in the United States. So when
we became aware of this, we turned it over for judicial
Nirupama Rao
Tri Valley students seek Congressman
Mike Honda’s help
RITU JHA
Tri-Valley University students in
the San Francisco Bay Area met
US Representative Michael
Honda’s office in Campbell, to
acquaint him of their plight and
appeal for help.
“My staff met with students
from Tri Valley University, along
with their attorney, and relayed
their individual stories of how
they fell victim to Tri Valley’s
fraudulent practices. The stu-
dents’ current efforts to re-
instate their F-1 visas were also
discussed. I intend to use all the
tools at my disposal to work with
US Citizenship and Immigration
Services to ascertain all the facts
in this most troubling situation,”
Honda told India Abroad.
Raj D, a student who went to
Honda’s office said, “We have
just until November 1. The
Congressman is our last hope.”
Another student Nanda
Kumar said, “We are running
out of time, and no authentic
action is being taken by our gov-
ernment.”
However, the Indian embassy
Web site has advised students
who have received a Notice of
Intend to Deny to reply to the
notices in the stipulated time
with required, additional infor-
mation and documents.
Disgraced Hare Krishna
leader dies
ARTHUR J PAIS
Swami Bhaktipada, the son of a Baptist
minister, was born Keith Ham
When Jacob Young started
working on a documentary
about the beleaguered
leader of the palatial New
Vrindaban Hare Krishna
commune in rural West
Virginia in 1992, he thought
his film would be about religious persecution. Marshall
County officials had Swami
Bhaktipada on trial after
the community’s cows died
during a bad winter.
COURTESY: KIRTANANANDASWAMI.ORG
‘A lot of people’s cows
froze, but a lot of people
didn’t go on trial for animal
cruelty,’ Young had said in a
statement.
Four years later, when
Bhaktipada pleaded guilty
to racketeering — including mail fraud and conspiracy to commit the murders
of two dissenting followers
— in a federal court in
Martinsburg, Young
changed his mind.
