HICKSVILLE, NY(TIP): The organizers hoped there will be equally great enthusiasm among people as they had shown in organizing the parade which was revived  after a gap of three years. However, their hopes were belied. Extreme heat and absence of shade of trees along the route prevented many who wanted to join the parade, to stay indoors. The absence of large crowds was offset by the large presence of lawmakers and  elected officials. The entire brigade of Nassau County officials led by the County Executive Laura Curran  seemed to have descended as also the Indian Consulate headed by Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty, the Consul General of India in New York.

The Indian Panorama received from the organizers a press release which we are publishing here as received. We take no responsibility for any claims made and  mistakes therein.

“Under the banner of India Day Parade USA the entire community of South Asian Indians gathered to celebrate the 73rd Anniversary of India’s Independence Day in Hicksville New York. Parade’s slogan this year was Jai Jawan- Jai Kisan to salute our soldiers and farmers and to celebrate the community, unity, heritage and cultural diversity of South Asian Indians.

IDP USA organized the 7th Parade in Hicksville NY on August 4th, 2019 starting from Patel Brothers on Broadway and ending with festivities at E Barclays Street.

They had celebrity Grand Marshalls, Honorable Consul General of India in New York Mr. Sandeep Chakravorty, Bollywood Actor Raj Kummar Rao, Mr. Naveen Shah – Navika Capital, Businessman Mr. Chintu Patel, distinguished Elected Officials Congressman Tom Suozzi and from Nassau and Suffolk  NY State Senators Kevin Thomas and Senator Anna Kaplan, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, Supervisor of North Hempstead Judy Bosworth, Supervisor of Oyster Bay Joseph Saladino, Supervisor of Hempstead Laura Gillen, Legislators Laura Schaefer and Rose Marie Walker, Minority Affairs E D Farrah Mozawalla, Suffolk County Human Rights Commissioner and 3 times Past President of IDP  Beena Kothari, Nassau Human Rights Commissioner Zahid Syed and others along with the President of the parade Mr. Jasbir (Jay) Singh, Mr. Kamlesh C Mehta, and several community leaders and invited guest Ms. Arti Patel, Co-Chief Executive Officer at Vass Pipe & Steel Co. Mr. Sunil Jain, Mrs. Chanchal Shah, who is the mother of Navika Group chief Naveen Shah, Advisors on stage, Indu Jaiswal, Sir Peter Bheddah, Beena Kothari, Mukesh Modi and other Committee members Mohinder Taneja,  Bina Sabapathy, Shashi Malik, Gautam Sanghvi to name a few for the inauguration and initiation of the parade at Patel Brothers. Satbir Bedi was the MC for the day. Breakfast was hosted by Patel Brothers and HAB Bank before the flag off.

The South Asian Community has become an integral part and changed the face of Long island and made Hicksville a prominent, ever developing multicultural home for all Indians sharing pride, passion, presence and social bond as patriotic American Indians.

A beautiful warm day with the whole crowd holding India’s Flag tricolor umbrellas sponsored by Mohinder Singh Miglani of Aero World marked Patel Brothers parking grounds. It was a sight to see as the parade later got flagged off with countless organizations from long island displaying pride and honor with marching groups and tricolor decorated festive floats sponsored by local organizations. The parade was led by IDP USA Indian National Flag bearers, Grand Marshalls and the IDP USA Committee in the biggest float in the parade as lead. The flowers were showered by helicopter on the full parade which mesmerized the local community and all Indian Community.

At festivity grounds cultural dances by children and students of local dance schools performed at the beginning and other celebrities were invited to perform on stage after the parade reached E Barclays Street. Bollywood singer Mr. Deepak Kumar of Satellite India and Punjabi stage artist and singer Ms. Pooja had the crowd cheering, taking videos and pictures and joining the mood. A fashion Show by Nishi Behl and sponsored by Bhavna Sharma of Sarashiva gave a special romantic touch to the stage with upbeat music and beautiful clothes and glamourous ladies.

BMW SUV sponsored by Mr. Naveen Shah of Navika Capital was the super prize of the raffle which had several other prizes including two 50” LG smart TVs made sure the crowd kept going back to the three IDP raffle booths. All prizes were drawn right there on stage and the BMW was won by an especially abled individual. The recipients of part proceeds were ‘Akshay Patra’ and ‘CRY’, two organizations that have led by example and changed the lives of thousands with their selfless mission for providing school lunch to poor children and for restoring children’s rights.

IDP USA was started in 2012 and founded by Bobby Kumar Kalotee, Kamlesh Mehta and prominent community leaders. IDP USA 2019 was supported by a 108-member team, countless volunteers, Grand Sponsors like Food Universe, Posh Group Corp., Bolla Markets Group, Patel Bros, Omega Storage, Omni Mortgage, STI Consultants, food / retail / business vendors, advertisers, the media and the entire community.

The success of the 2019 IDP USA Parade was celebrated by the community with a grand Gala at The Standard at North Shore in Muttontown and the Honor of Jewel of India was awarded to Mr. Naveen Shah and Mr. Chintu Patel and Lifetime achievement awards to Mr. Ravi Batra and Ms. Ranju Narang.