Vazhapadi Rama Suganthan, a Youth Congress leader, representing the Tamil Nadu Pradesh Congress Committee as a guest of honor, joined the INOC leaders – Chairperson George Abraham, President Shudh Parkash Singh and Tamil Nadu Chapter President John Joseph in cutting a huge cake to mark the celebrations. The birthday celebrations are postponed in India due to five-day State morning due to the passing away of Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

Suganthan in his presidential address said Indians are grateful to the sacrifices of the Nehru family for generations for the betterment of the nation and Sonia Gandhi stood as a shining example of a person who has put service above self.

Recalling his father - a former Union Minister Vazhapadi Ramamurthy’s - long association with both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, he said the sacrifices of the family are much more than the John F Kennedy family of the US who lost the two brothers – John and Robert Kennedy- to violence. He said future elections will be fought on Face Book and Twitter and urged NRIs to support Congress candidates in their states in the Lok Sabha elections due in 2014.

George Abraham, Chairperson of the INOC, said Sonia Gandhi revitalized the party after a slump and brought it back to power to unleash a slew of welfare schemes like food security bill and rural job guarantee unheard in the history of India. Shudh Parkash Singh, President of INOC, said NRIs prayed for the welfare of Mrs. Gandhi and portrayed her as Modern Mother India who is serving the children of the nation with love and affection.

Harbachan Singh, General Secretary of INOC and a former senior official of the United Nations facilitating Sonia Gandhi traced her illustrious career and credited her superior leadership qualities that helped Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Congress Party of India to bring about swift changes to uplift the lot of over a billion Indians and thrust India into the twenty-first century. “ What kept her back initially from getting involved in politics was the fact that Indira Gandhi, her mother-in-law, Sanjay Gandhi, her brother in-law, and Rajiv Gandhi, her husband had all faced violent deaths and the family could not afford loosing another member bearing in mind she has two growing up children.”

At least on two occasions the top brass of the Congress Party had to plead with her – firstly to relent and to get involved and serve the Congress Party and later on to withdraw her resignation when she was criticized by the opposition party for involving in politics being foreign born, he said. She has held the position of President of the Indian National Congress Party uninterrupted for the longest period in the party’s 126 year history. She leads with enough discipline and dignity that embraces both love and power and she now ranks among the 10 most powerful women in the world, he said.

Pakistani movie actress Meera, Kanwal Sra, treasurer of INOC, Anand Ahuja, president of NRI Interface, Kalathil Varughese, president of Kerala chapter and others praised the services of Sonia Gandhi on the happy occasion.

John Joseph, president of Tamil Nadu chapter welcomed the gathering and Koshy Oommen, secretary of Tamil Nadu chapter, proposed a vote of thanks.

Dr. Leno Thomas, a leading oncologist in New York gave a lecture on cancer prevention and Saranya Radhakrishnan spoke on the importance of South Asians getting involved in bone marrow registry