(From top) Lalu Prasad, Dawood, Bachchan

Washington, Oct. 12: Lalu Prasad, Dawood Ibrahim, Bill Gates, Nehru and Amitabh Bachan (sic!) are among those petitioning the US Postal Service (USPS) this year to issue a postal stamp to commemorate Diwali.

As of today, one of several petitions in circulation has received 3,68,593 signatures, including those purportedly from the railway minister and the don, the latter a designated terrorist and drug kingpin, according to the US government.

The petition was investigated after the South Asian Journalists’ Association (Saja), an organisation of nearly 700 journalists and journalism students in north America, received urgent entreaties from Indian Americans to circulate it and post it on Saja’s mailing lists.

The investigation showed that the petition was what Saja’s administrator Sreenath Sreenivasan calls a “harmless hoax”.

The fake signatures by people like Nehru apart, Arun Venugopal, editor of Saja forum, an online platform for Saja members, says the petition is a hoax because the entire effort by Indian Americans to get it signed and submitted to the USPS is a futile exercise.

Emails from Indian Americans to each other have been frantic with this year’s Diwali approaching. But Mark Saunders, a spokesman for the USPS, told Venugopal as he investigated the matter that petitioning the postal authorities did not count in any decision to issue a stamp. “We do not track the number of signatures,” Saunders said.

The petition drive was started by a businessman of Bengali descent in Atlanta, Bob Ghosh. He first wrote to Ronald A. Robinson, described in the appeal as chairman of the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee of the USPS. Co-signing that appeal was Ghosh’s friend Amitabh Sharma.

That was way back in 2003, according to Ghosh’s recollection. In three subsequent years, the petition acquired a life and mobility of its own as Indian Americans believed half-a-million signatures were required before postal authorities would consider a US stamp for occasions such as Diwali.

No, says Saunders. About 50,000 people contact the USPS with stamp suggestions each year. Of these, “several thousand proposals are reviewed by the (stamp selection) committee and 20-25 subjects become stamps. For sure, there will be no US postal stamp this year for Diwali. The USPS is currently finalising its schedule for new stamps for 2008 and 2009. Next year’s schedule will be made public at the end of this month.”

Saunders said: “It can take several years from the time a stamp suggestion is approved until the stamp is actually released. We don’t release information on a potential stamp subject suggestion other than to say the suggestion was either rejected, accepted or is under consideration.”

All he would say about the proposal for the stamp is it “remains under consideration”.

The petition started by Indian Americans is, however, going global, attracting signatories from Southeast Asia, the Gulf and the subcontinent.

Lalu Prasad, who signed it, has given his location as Bihar and Bill Gates has proclaimed that he is from Microsoft. But the CBI and the Interpol will be disappointed to find that Dawood has not revealed his location lest they go after him.

The US has issued stamps for other religious festivals such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Id and Chinese lunar new year, but not yet for any Hindu observance.