US companies say Indo/Pakistan conflict is no problem

Posted on Sat, Jun. 01, 2002
LOCAL RESPONSE
Valley companies show little alarm about India tension
By Sam Diaz and T.T. Nhu
Mercury News

Despite a U.S. government warning for Americans to leave

businesses and residents in Silicon Valley with ties to the

showed only slight concern Friday about the prospects of war and

possible impacts on families and business operations there.

Some say they are convinced neither India nor Pakistan would ever

nuclear weapons. Others say the troubled border region is too far

some 1,500 miles -- from Bangalore, the high-tech center of India,

companies to be alarmed. Others simply think the United States

exaggerating the danger.

``The U.S. media has put it out as a significantly more

situation than actually exists,'' said Kailash Joshi, president of

IndUS Entrepreneurs, a Indian networking group in San Jose.

are right now cautious, calm and collected. By evacuating

citizens, the U.S. is issuing the panic call.''

Joshi said the opinion is his own, not his organization's, but

that businesses should not be making rash decisions about

presence in south Asia.

``I think, in most parts of India, from what I'm gathering by

to people, businesses are continuing to operate as they normally

he said.

That's mostly because the people who work for American companies

India are Indian nationals, not Americans.

``If you're a different race or color, you stand out and in times

this, that can be dangerous,'' said Jessie Singh, CEO of BJS Group

Milpitas. ``It's one of the advantages of being Indian. It

because you're part of that mix anyway.''

Singh, who still has family living in the small village of Majra,

the edge of the Pakistani border, says he won't be canceling

trips to his home country.

Work has not come to a halt there, though it has slowed down in

near the border.

``No one knows what will happen tomorrow,'' he said.

Other valley companies, however, say that the government's

doesn't affect them. Most of their employees based in India are

India.

``It doesn't really apply to us,'' said Lisa Pistacchio,

for SGI. The company has no Americans working in its sales offices

India, but has taken the advice of the government and postponed

to the area.

At Adobe and Intel, management is also suggesting to employees

non-crucial travel to the region be postponed.

``At this point, it's recommended companywide that employees

travel to India, said Adobe spokeswoman Holly Campbell.

probably wise to put those plans on hold.''

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said, ``We'll wait to see how things

and what additional state department warnings are released before

take additional action.''

Indian delegations in search of Silicon Valley business

have been similarly blasé, said Suprabha Murthy, a project manager

the International Business Incubator in downtown San Jose. In

the possibility of war wasn't even mentioned during a recent

from a delegation from Bangalore. ``Nobody discusses it,''

said. ``It's like business as usual.''

But some local entrepreneurs are worried about the long-term

effects in India and Pakistan, both of which crave Western

``Who is going to put their money -- or say, `Yes, we're going to

offshore development' -- in a country where there's going to be

war?'' said one Pakistani-American software entrepreneur who

want his name used. ``No one's going to do that.''

Omar Khan, a Pakistani living in Union City, said the

in the Bay Area don't want a confrontation between the two countries.

``This is the ultimate lose-lose scenario and will bring with

several decades of further unrest while further impoverishing

already impoverished region'' Khan said.

Still, there is some anxiety -- and not all of it stems from

conflict between India and Pakistan.

``We have to look how 9/11 shifted the paradigm,'' said Joshi,

president of the Indian entrepreneurs group. ``The sense of

safety, liberty has changed. When we think of a war between India

Pakistan, two countries with nuclear weapons, there is a sense

panic.''

Ashish Chadha, a Stanford University doctoral student, is

worried for his parents, who live in Kolkata, India, despite

messages of reassurance they send him in daily e-mails.

``What's so interesting is that they are not as anxious,'' he

``They feel it's just rhetoric.''

And while Chadha knows that a conflict between India and

could include the use of nuclear weapons, the anthropology student

his wife, Ashwini Deo, still plan to visit their native land

summer vacation begins next week.

``It's not about fear, it's about going back to one's country,''

Chadha, 30, who was an anti-nuclear activist in India and belongs to

newly formed pacifist organization on the Peninsula, Friends of

Asia.

``If there is a war, I'd be part of the whole thing, and if we have

die, we have to die,'' Chadha said.
_________________________________________________________________

Mercury News Staff Writers Edwin Garcia and Sarah Lubman

to this report.
Contact Sam Diaz at sdiaz@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5021.

T.T. Nhu at tnhu@sjmercury.com or (510) 790-7317.