Seated left to right: Dr. Sudha Parikh, NY Supreme Court Justice Ruth Balkins, Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das, Justice Denise Sher and Mary Cozzens. Standing L to R: Dr. Yashpal Arya, Dr. Vaijinath Chakote, Justice Bruce Cozzens, Dr. Dattatreyudu Nori, Deputy Consul General of India in New York Dr. Manoj Kumar Mohapatra, Justice Steven Bucaria, former County Executive Tom Suozzi, District Court Judge Anthony Paradiso, Varinder Bhalla, Dr. Sunil Mehra, Dr. Ajay Lodha, Dr. Sudhir Parikh and Animesh Goenka.
Seated left to right: Dr. Sudha Parikh, NY Supreme Court Justice Ruth Balkins, Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das, Justice Denise Sher and Mary Cozzens. Standing L to R: Dr. Yashpal Arya, Dr. Vaijinath Chakote, Justice Bruce Cozzens, Dr. Dattatreyudu Nori, Deputy Consul General of India in New York Dr. Manoj Kumar Mohapatra, Justice Steven Bucaria, former County Executive Tom Suozzi, District Court Judge Anthony Paradiso, Varinder Bhalla, Dr. Sunil Mehra, Dr. Ajay Lodha, Dr. Sudhir Parikh and Animesh Goenka.

NEW YORK (Diya TV) — Judges from the New York State Supreme Court and Long Island public officials, in coordination with the Indian American Voters Forum convened to host a welcoming reception this week for Consul General of India, Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das.

Supreme Court Justices Steven Bucaria, Bruce Cozzens, Ruth Balkins, Denise Sher and district court judge Anthony Paradiso attended the event. They were joined by New York assemblyman Thomas McKevitt and former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. In total, nearly 85 prominent members of the community were in attendance, including Dr. Sudhir Parikh and Dr. Dattatreyudu Nori.

Das met in private with the assembled judges and organizing members of the Indian forum to discuss the possibilities of inviting a delegation of American judges to visit India.

“I am very welcoming of the idea of an exchange program of the judiciary and I hope that soon one day it will come true,” said Justice Bucaria.

Indian Forum chairman Varinder Bhalla informed the Consul General of the group’s recent initiative of recruiting members of Congress into the Congressional Caucus on India. Recently, Congresswoman Kathleen Rice joined the caucus. The aforementioned Parikh was a key player in the formation of the caucus in 1993, and spoke about its role in “furthering the relationship between our two democracies, our nations’ shared interests from global security to trade and international prosperity.”

Suozzi is currently in the heat of a congressional race, and stressed his longstanding relationship with the Indian-American community in New York, pledging his support of the caucus and saying he would certainly become a member.

“I will certainly join the India Caucus if I am elected in November,” he said, adding, “and work to strengthen the bond between the world’s largest democracy and the world’s oldest democracy.”

The event also found time to pay tribute to the late Dr. Banad Viswanath, who was a relentless community advocate in the area. The Consul General and assemblyman McKevitt presented his son, Dev Viswanath, with a citation on behalf of the New York State Assembly. Viswanath founded Vision of Asia, the first Indian-American TV show, in 1976. It expanded in 1986 to ITV Gold, the first 24/7 cable TV station in the U.S., delivering countless hours of news and culture from India to American television screens.