JUBAIL, 13 June 2005 — As the biggest industrial city in the Kingdom, Jubail boasts a large concentration of Indian professionals, as well as skilled and semiskilled Indian expatriates. Shaikh Mehmood Hasan, the former chairman of Dammam and Jubail Indian Schools’ managing committees has long pushed for a means to unite the Indian community there and enable them to work as one for the wellbeing of all. Thus it was with much anticipation that the India Forum was born.
Cutting across the boundaries created by language and regionalism, the India Forum has brought together Indians in Jubail within a common platform to interact and find solutions to the various problems facing the city’s subcontinent community. Four months back an ad hoc committee was created with Mehmood as president, P.J.J. Antony as general secretary and Ramakant Bhalla as treasurer. Their mandate was to launch the India Forum with a formal vision and mission statement, a constitution and sizable chunk of Indians as the membership base.
Their goal was met with the Installation Ceremony of the newly elected India Forum officers. The campaign for the forum had all the ingredients of an Indian election. Panels and counter panels, alliances cutting across language and religion, manifestos filled with promises, hush-hush meetings with lavish dinners, all were part of the election scene. However, when it came time for the ballots to be cast, unlike a typical election day in India, Chief Election Officer Benny Jose ensured that the voting proceeded without a hitch.
Dr. P.V.S. Nampoothirippad, former chief executive of Apollo Tyres and Hindustan Latex was the chief guest at the installation ceremony. Taking the oath of office were: Meeruj Ul Ansari (president), Syed Sadathulla (Vice president – administration), Jose Albert (vice president – membership & planing), Saood Khan (vice president – public relations), Prem Raj (general secretary), Jayan Thachampara (joint secretary), Girish Kunnath (Treasurer), and Anis Bakhsh, Waheed Lateef, Jayan Variyar, Issam Jaffer, Kausur Kamal Khan and Shabeer Ahmed (executive committee members).
