MANGALURU: The Centre has denied Sidhi tribals, who moved to India from Kenya almost 1,000 years ago, permission to meet US President Barack Obama during his visit to India.
“For the past 10 years, we have been trying to send a letter or a tribal gift to Obama to show him how great a country India is. We want to show him how well India has accepted people from his own tribe and has given them space to multiply and survive. But every time the government has been rejecting our appeals,” Diyog Bastion Sidhi, a tribal leader of Haliyal told Express.
“We came to know that our letters and appeals go no further than the district office,” he said. This time, Sidhis had appealed to the Deputy Commissioner of Uttara Kannada and the District Minister to allow at least one or two of their leaders to meet Obama in Delhi. Their appeal was rejected citing security as reason.
“But we will continue our efforts to convey our message to Obama through a letter asking him to forge a strong bond between India and the United States,” Krishna T Sidhi, president of the Sidhi Abhivriddhi Society, said.