WASHINGTON D.C., United States, November 1, 2002: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, niece of late president John F. Kennedy, has promised the Indian community that she would organize a Deepavali Mela at the Maryland State House if she is elected Maryland’s governor in the November 5 election. She also pledged to strengthen economic ties between Maryland and India. Along with Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes, she attended the Deepavali Mela, an annual feature, which attracted about 25,000 people from the greater Washington area, comprising parts of Virginia and Maryland. She said she was so impressed by the colorful and traditional event, that she decided the Indian American community deserved a bigger and better place for the celebrations, namely the governor’s house — if she were elected Maryland’s next governor. She recalled how her uncle, President Kennedy, and her father, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, liberalized the American immigration law to facilitate entry into the United States of talented people the world over.
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