Chicago Street Named after Jayalalitha- by Nand Kapoor, Chicaho Bureau
Chief
Chicago, April 29 - On April 27 '96, the Dr. J. Jayalalitha
Way on Devon
Avenue from Broadway to Lakewood Avenue was unveiled &
dedicated with an Inter-Faith Prayer and an impressive community rally. Dr. J. Jayalalitha
Way is located at a major intersection in the Northside of the City of Chicago
where major roads, Broadway
Avenue, Devon Avenue and North
Sheridan meet. The Dr.
J. Jayalalitha Way is
the first portion of the long winding West Devon Avenue which bears Honorary street
designations for Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed Ali Jinnah
and Golda Mier (Ex Israeli Prime Minister), at
different segments of the Avenue.
At
the Colorful Ceremony held at the major intersection a dove each was released
by the representatives of the following nine organizations who are
co-sponsoring the World Day For Children's Celebrations to commemorate the
48th Birthday Celebrations of Tamilnadu Chief
Minister Dr. J. Jayalalitha in 48 different countries
from February 24 '96 to April 12, '96. The Co-sponsoring organizations are -
International American Friendship Society, Lamb Of God International
Ministries, Bahadur Yar
Jung International Research Institute, South Asian Performing Arts Council Of
America, World Peace Academy, US International Development Alliance, South
Asian Organization For Aids Awareness And Prevention, Inc., The Wellness
Foundation, and Indo-American Chamber of Commerce Inc.
Illinois
Governor Jim Edgar congratulated Dr. Jayalalitha On
the unveiling Of Dr. J. Jayalalitha Way, a sign
named in honor of her leadership and accomplishments. Governor Edgar
commended Dr. Jayalalitha for her commitment to the
oppressed and underprivileged people of South India.
"Your selfless dedication to the promotion of social justice is highly
commendable", Edgar added in a personal congratulatory letter to Jayalalitha.
Hundreds
of Balloons were released at the dedication ceremony. Inter-Faith prayers of
the Jewish Faith, Hindu, Muslim and Christian faiths were offered at the
start of the ceremonies at the major intersection. The person who was
instrumental for initiating this historic land mark legislation, Illinois
Senator Howard Carrol unveiled the sign amidst a
prolonged applause and cries of "Puratchi Thalaivi Vazha" rent the
air. A large number of the Indian community had assembled at the major
intersection despite the cold weather.
The
ceremonies was followed by a Luncheon tribute to the Living Legend.- Dr. Jayalalitha at the
Vegetarian Indian restaurant, "The Woodlands Of Madras" located on Devon Avenue. At
the Luncheon meeting, Mrs. Shanthi Thangaraj, Reception Committee Chair welcomed the
gathering. Dr. Louis Mithra, President, US
International Development Alliance, and Organizing Secretary of the World Day
for Children Celebrations read the City of Chicago
proclamation honoring Dr. J. Jayalalitha with the
Street dedication for her revolutionary leadership and proclaimed Dr. J. Jayalalitha as the selfless daughter of India.
Dr.
S.Kallaichellam, Coordinator, 48th Dr. Jayalalitha Birthday Celebrations committee, New York
presented the 122,000 Eye-Donor Pledges and 95,000 Anti- Dowry pledges
collected during the 48 day long birthday celebrations in 48 countries to the
Federation President, Dr. Vijay Prabhakar. Dr.
Vijay Prabhakar, President, World Federation Of
Tamil Youth Inc., receiving the pledge announced that a permanent monument
honoring Dr. Jayalalitha's services to Children
would be erected soon in a Headstart Children's
Center in Wisconsin.
Speaking
on behalf of the American Community, Illinois Senator Howard W. Carroll, paid
rich tributes to Dr. Jayalalitha stating that he
would be introducing legislation in the State of Illinois Senate to provide for All Woman
Police Station and Universalization of Primary
Education on the same model as being implemented by Dr. J. Jayalatitha. Senator Carroll added that in each of the
bills a special mention of Dr. J. Jayalalitha and
her programs would be made. Indeed today, America is learning from Dr. J. Jayalalitha's Tamilnadu on
Woman & Children issues, he added amidst applause.
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And then an Institute in a Chicago Hospital was named after
her
Chicago Hospital: Jayalalitha
Beats Vajpayee, Sonia In Getting An Institute Named
After Her
Aseem Chhabra
The
names of a two-time US presidential candidate, who is also a civil rights
leader, and a regional Indian politician accused of corruption charges and
who toppled the BJP-led central government are soon going to be linked
together at a hospital in Chicago.
Next
month, the Reverend Jesse Jackson is expected to inaugurate an institute at Chicago's Doctors
Hospital that will be
named after J Jayalalitha, the former Tamil Nadu chief minister, who has acted in over 200 films in
five languages.
Convent-educated
Jayalalitha, who succeeded her co-star M G Ramachandran as leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, made her debut in an English-language film, Epistle over three decades ago.
She was also in the lead in Izzat -- her only Hindi film -- opposite Dharmendra.
The
Doctors Hospital
has long been affiliated with Jackson's
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Jackson's
son Jonathan and the Reverend Willie Barrow, co-chair of the coalition's
national board, both serve on the hospital's board of directors. The
hospital's cancer prevention institute is named after Jesse Jackson.
As
is the case in her political and personal life in India, controversy also surrounds
the initiative to name the medical institute after Jayalalitha.
People
backing the project consider her to be a "future-looking" and an
"emerging" Indian politician at the national scene. Those who
oppose her style of politics question the intelligence of associating her
name with any institution. Some, including S P Udayakumar,
a professor in Minnesota who used to run the
BJP Government Watch Forum, has written a letter to Jackson.
The
brainchild of Dr Vijay Prabhakar, executive vice-
president of the Doctors
Hospital's Wellness
Institute, the proposed Jayalalitha International
Institute of Preventive Medicine will focus on allopathic and alternative
medical treatments. The project also has the support of two other Indian
doctors at the hospital -- Dr Virendra Bisla, chairman of the cardiology department and Dr Ravi Barnabas, director of
outpatient services.
Dr
Bisla and Dr Prabhakar
are active members of the thriving Indian community in Chicago. Dr Prabhakar
is chairman of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce while Dr Bisla is president of the Indo-American Business Forum.
Dr
Prabhakar said the new institute was set to open on
May 15. However, due to scheduling conflicts, the formal dedication ceremony
will not take place before the end of June. He added that Jayalalitha
is not expected to attend the ceremony and could be represented by her ally, Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy.
Dina
Anderson, deputy press secretary for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago, said Jackson's
schedule had changed substantially in the last several weeks and that she
could not say whether he would be available in June for the formal dedication
ceremony. Jackson spent several days in Yugoslavia
last week and helped to have the three American soldiers released from the
Serbs.
"We
were looking for a leader from India
or the east, who looks into the future rather than
dwells into the past," Dr Prabhakar recently
said in an interview from his office in Chicago.
Besides Jayalalitha, the group of doctors
considered two other candidates -- Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime
Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee.
Dr
Prabhakar said the question of Sonia's
"foreign-born citizenship" would have been a controversial issue.
The
corruption charges against Jayalalitha did not
affect the choice that Dr Prabhakar and his
colleagues made. "Which politician today does not have a corruption
charge, either here or in India,
tell me?" he asked. "Everybody has their
weaknesses and their strengths. But she as a leader has the right goals for
the people."
"She
is very intelligent," he said. "I have met several politicians from
India,
right from Indira Gandhi to Morarji
Desai. But I have never met any person with such a depth and breadth of
knowledge on any subject."
Dr
Prabhakar would not comment on Jayalalitha's
involvement in the toppling of the BJP-led coalition government, referring to
her actions as "a political judgment."
Among
Jayalalitha's achievements during her tenure as
chief minister, he cited the creation of the first all-women police station,
and her commitment to family planning and pre-natal care facilities in Tamil Nadu.
Dr
Prabhakar and his associates made a recommendation
to the Doctors Hospital's board of director to name
the facility after Jayalalitha. Later the board
passed a resolution calling upon Jesse Jackson to dedicate the facility in
the AIADMK leader's name. Dr Prabhakar said Jackson was aware of Jayalalitha's
"emergence as one of India's
top political leaders."
This
is not the first time that Dr Prabhakar has been
involved in promoting Jayalalitha's name in Chicago. In April 1996,
he worked with Illinois
state Senator Howard Carrol and Chicago's city
council in naming a few blocks on Devon
Avenue -- the city's main Indian shopping center
-- as Jayalalitha
Way. According to reports, the street signs were
taken off the next year when Jayalalitha's rival,
the DMK's M Karunanidhi
took over as chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
Other
prominent leaders whose names appear along the blocks of the avenue include
Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, Mother Teresa
and Israel's
Golda Meir.
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On October 10, 2005 she was awarded
the Peace Prize
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Peace award presented to Jayalalithaa
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Chennai, Oct 10: The International Congress of Indian
Christians Inc (ICICI) 2005 peace award was today presented to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa
for her "dynamic leadership" in implementing several progressive
and humanitarian initiatives for the under-privileged.
The award has been given to her also for her leadership
that had made a 'meaningful and positive impact' in the lives of the
under-privileged by implementing several initiatives including the tsunami
relief, rain harvesting, environmental protection, empowerment of women
through self-help groups, free bicycle scheme for school children and the
cradle baby scheme.
An official press release said today that the peace
award by the ICICI, a grassroot-level organisation with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, USA, was being given annually
to a state leader who had significantly contributed to the protection and
promotion of minorities and human rights.
The Rt Rev Dr S Jeyapaul David, CSI bishop of Tirunelveli
diocese, Tamil Nadu, and president of the
National Council of Churches in India,
New Delhi,
presented the ICICI Peace Prize to Jayalalithaa
at the Secretariat.
The
delegation was led by Rev Dr Prasanna Kumari, vice-president, National Council of Churches in
India,
and president-elect of ICICI. (Our Correspondent)
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THE INTRIGUING PART OF THIS PEACE AWARD IS ICICI WHICH GAVE THIS PRIZE ON OCTOBER 10, 2005 HAD CEASED TO
EXIST FROM NOVEMBER 2004. A SCRUTINY
OF THE RECORDS IN THE CONCERNED CHICAGO
OFFICE WILL PROVE THIS.
NEXT, DR, VIJAY G. PRABHAKAR WAS NOT IN ANY
WAY CONNECTED WITH THIS ORGANISATION AND YET HE HAD REPRESENTED THIS
ORGANISATION. IN FACT EVERY ORGANISATION, ONLY HE HAD REPRESENTED.
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Below is the picture of Dr. Vijay G. Prabhakar presenting a cheque for US $ 25000 to Jayalalithaa for the CM's Relief Fund
And Jayalalithaa is acting her part pf
the DRAMA by lending her name to the “priCes”
Awards of Excellence on Jaya's b'day
NT
Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Awardees with Dr Jayalalithaa Award of Excellence. Noted playwright and
actor S Ve Sekar and
Dr Vijay G Prabhakar, president, World Federation
of Tamil Youth, are also seen.
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Six eminent
personalities in various fields were awarded with Dr J Jayalalithaa
Awards of Excellence in a function today by World Federation of Tamil Youth,
a US-
based Tamil organisation on the occasion of the
58th birthday of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
The awardees are Dr K M Cherian, chairman, Frontier
Lifeline Hospital, S P Thyagarajan,
Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras, K V Radhakrishna
Iyer, managing director, Iyer
Impex, Grace George, founder, Alpha group of
educational institutions, Harish L Mehta, chairman,
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Trust, and S Swethasri,
national swimmer, for excellence in healthcare, distinguished leadership,
business, education, community services and youth achievement respectively.
The Banyan Charitable Trust was also awarded for outstanding service organisation in the function.
Speaking on the occasion, noted playwright and actor S Ve
Sekar said Tamilnadu was
marching towards the numero uno
position in the country as a result of the eminent leadership of Jayalalithaa.
S P Thyagarajan, Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras,
said the report of United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) said the index of Tamilnadu had increased
uniformly in the recent years.
He said the Chief Minister was announcing schemes for the development of
every sphere of the State and also for the people.
Earlier, a colourfully-decorated 58 kilo-cake was
cut in the function to celebrate the birthday of the Chief Minister.
Dr
Vijay G Prabhakar, president, World Federation of
Tamil Youth, and C R Saraswathi, Chairperson, Tamilnadu Social Welfare Board, were among the others
present on the occasion.
Who is this Dr. Vijay G. Prabhakar
flying up and down from Chicago
to Chennai frequently ? What is the larger plan behind this proposal of recommending Jayalalithaa’s name for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize? Is the Nobel Institute blind towards its rules and
regulations by accepting recommendations from Dr. VGP who seems to be heading
so many organizations all in Chicago.
How many of them are bogus {like the International Congress for Indian
Christian Inc(ICICI)
?}
Has the Nobel institute suddenly lost its right
course? Why has it entertained proposals from the likes of Dr. Vijay G. Prabhakar?
What a joke ? ! Proposing
the name of Jayalalitha for Nobel Peace Prize ! !
The Nobel Institute should give the prize
posthumously to Hitler also?But their rules forbid posthumous awards !
So far none has beaten Jayalalithaa in repressive and oppressive ruling
and corruption!
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