CHICAGO: Iftekhar Shareef, president of a national umbrella organization the Federation of Indian Associations, feels that the Indian government, more importantly the Ministry of Overseas Affairs headed by Vyalar Ravi, should follow a due diligent process and sift available data on the candidates before announcing the names of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awardees.

"It appears the process has not been followed for the past two years," he said in a statement. Citing specific examples, he said that one of the potential awardees from Chicago, who had worked hard lobbying successfully for the Nuke deal with USA, was side tracked in preference to somebody else.

"The Indian Consulate and the Indian Embassy in Washington DC are also said to be sidetracked."Shareef said in his statement, "My understanding and information is that this year the list of awardees was set up by the Ministry of Overseas Affairs and the Vice President of India, M.Hamid Ansari, who happens to be the Vice Chair of the Committee overlooking the selection processes, was blissfully unaware of the names of the awardees till the last moment. It was a fait accompli for him.

"This Ministry should set clear guidelines selecting the awardees. PBS Awards should really be given to those who really deserve them and not to any Tom, Dick and Harry with direct access to the Ministry. The Government earlier gave awards to Sam Pitroda, Niranjan Shah, Dr. Jain, Dr BR Shetty and all of them and others too deserved them. Let the awards be prestigious recognition of Indians abroad who have distinguished themselves in the fields of business, community services, education, science and arts," he concluded.