Who wouldn’t want to lick that?

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Remember my previous posts (here and here and here) on the drive to get the first (and up until recently, the only) Indian American Congressman onto a stamp? Well our boy has met with some resistance and the IACFPA reports that the stamp proposal has been defeated:

The U.S. CitizensÂ’ Stamp Advisory Committee was recently reported to have rejected the proposal to issue a stamp commemorating Dalip Singh Saund, the first Asian to be elected to Congress in 1956. But Indian Americans and various legislative bodies have not given up the effort to garner recognition for the late Congressman.

Okay so what’s the next step? How to recover from this devastating news? What’s plan B?

On Nov. 17, Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA) was joined by some 50 Democratic and Republican legislators from California, introducing H.R. 5374, to designate the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 30777 Rancho California Road in Temecula, California, as the ‘Dalip Singh Saund Post Office Building.’

I am not confident though. Our boy seems to be getting no love:

“But we are not giving up,” said AFPIO President Ramesh Gupta in a press release. On Jan. 22, 2005 at the ‘India Night’ function in Dallas, Gupta said, the AFPIO plans to restart the petition drive. And in March, a Saund souvenir will be launched at an event where President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are being invited. The release did not say whether the invitations were accepted.

In July, Rep. Wilson, introduced a bill to put up SaundÂ’s portrait in the Capitol rotunda. The fate of this bill and of the one for renaming a postal office in California is yet to be decided.

Imagine putting this much effort behind some issue actually relevant to South Asian Americans. Hmmm, I wonder if Jindal will get a stamp.

5 thoughts on “Who wouldn’t want to lick that?”

  2. Yep, too obscure seems to be the reason. Here is the statement:

    “A limited number of stamp subjects are chosen for each yearly program. Unfortunately, a vast majority of suggestions submitted, including many meritorious and meaningful subjects, cannot result a stamp,’’ the U.S. Postal Service letter said, according to AFPIO.