Naipaul not invited to Pravasi Diwas

If the previous two Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas', the government-sponsored annual get-together for non-resident Indians, were all about "loving your country", the third one, to be held in Mumbai in January is going to be "business as usual".

This is not the only way in which the event will be different from its earlier avatar. This time Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul will be absent from the guest list.

According to Overseas Indians' Affairs Minister Jagdish Tytler, this year's event will focus on business opportunities and ways in which official hassles could be minimised. "This event will be more business oriented," he said.

Tytler put down Naipaul's absence from the list as "giving an opportunity to a fresh set of people to come for the event." "He attended the first two meets. Let us have a new set of people," he said. The new guest list appears to be a secret but not the schedule for the three-day event.

Surprisingly, Leader of the Opposition LK Advani and UPA chairperson and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will be addressing NRI's on the concluding day.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the meet, which will also feature sessions on rural development, NRIs in the Gulf, and an hour will be devoted to drawing up family trees through a programme called "tracing your roots". Finance Minister P Chidambaram will also address the meet.

"There are people who want to know which village their ancestors came from. This will provide an opportunity for them to find ways of doing it," said Tytler.

But the meet is going to be a party event as well. According to Ficci adviser Vivek Bharti, the INS Vikrant will the venue for a gala party. During an inspection, the decommissioned ship was found "ship shape to host a party".

"We will listen more this time. Everyone knows overseas Indian's love this country, its time we gave them an opportunity to show it," said Tytler.