A desperate attempt to stay in the US.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Over 160 young immigrants from India to the US seem to have vanished into thin air from a small community in Iowa.
The 163 people, who were allegedly here in the US to be trained as Vedic Pandits at the Maharishi Vedic City and Mahrishi University of Management in Fairfield, have been steadily going missing over the past year, according to a report in the community newspaper Hi India. They are part of a total of some 1,050 such youngsters brought from northern India, with some being as young as 19 years old.
The suspected cause of the unaccounted flights may be immigration. According to the report, the aspiring Vedic Pandits are recruited from poverty-afflicted areas of India, particularly those where everyone speaks Hindi. Literature is distributed and interested parties, largely children, are lined up to be taken under the wing of the Vedic organization with assurances that the children will be educated through 12th grade, at which point they’ll either become Pandits or Hindu priests.
According to the Global Country of World Peace (GCWP), one of the largest US bodies for would-be men of the Hindu cloth, the children are brought to the US under two-year visas given as part of an agreement with the Indian Embassy. After that two year period, the visas are subsequently renewed consistently on a six-month basis, or the person is denied an extension and sent back to India.
Payment comes in the form of a $50 compensation given while the subject is in the US, while another $150 is paid to them if/when they go back to India. The latter sum is considered “bond money,” and is paid in a lump sum rather than over time. Whether they stay in the US or go back, however, is generally judged based on behavior and merit, and some are made to go back to India even if they don’t want to.
That’s where these disappearances are alleged to be taking place. When one of the young Vedic scholars is being sent back to India, transportation is provided by the school to take them to the airport. It is when they’re dropped off that many simply run and don’t look back. Some students wish to go back, and are taken to Chicago’s O’Hare airport in groups, but many are simply daunted by the prospect of going back to India after being in the US and decide to stay. The “strong-hearted” are the ones that run.
There have been no missing persons reports filed at the Fairfield’s Sherriff office, nor has the Indian Consulate in Chicago (the nearest one for Iowa) apparently done anything with regards to finding these missing people. According to the Consulate, any foreign passport holder who has left their documentation behind must have it given to the “nearest Indian mission” and notify them of the fact that the person is on the lam.
Fairfield, Iowa is not a big town by any means. Its population is less than 9,500, and the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment is one of only two private schools in the entire town.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com