New Delhi, (The Telegraph): Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj will address a stripped-down version of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on January 9, days after her team told planners to defer the event altogether.

The external affairs ministry today sent out invitations for Sushma's keynote address at the event that till last year could be attended annually by any non-resident Indian (NRI) or person of Indian origin (PIO) by applying online and paying a fee.

From 2016, India will host the till-now annual extravaganza with open participation once in two years, with a more academic conference of diaspora scholars, leaders and experts in the intermediate years, Sushma had announced in October. The smaller event will be open only to invitees.

But unhappy after a review of preparations for the smaller event less than two weeks from now, Sushma had in mid-December signalled to the ministry of overseas Indian affairs - which too she heads - to defer the event.

This decision was quietly conveyed to key organisations like the Confederation of Indian Industries that help the government liaison with overseas Indian groups.

Three officials involved closely with India's diaspora outreach said they didn't know even this afternoon that the event had been resurrected for January 9.

A prod from the Prime Minister's Office and pressure from within the ministry of overseas Indian affairs appear to have convinced Sushma to go ahead with the annual event - which has never been skipped since it was started by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2003.

"The bigger event, where people can apply and participate, will be held once in every two years from now on," Sushma had declared on October 6. "And in the in-between year, we will hold a more focused event."

After Sushma's declaration, the overseas Indian affairs ministry began preparing for the smaller Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conference - from January 8 to January 10. It was also decided that the bigger summits every alternative year would be held in state capitals, not in New Delhi.

But by December, preparations for the 2016 meet were going nowhere, officials said.

Sushma had planned four panels of experts debating key subjects confronting the diaspora - including challenges faced by over 7 million working Indians in West Asia. But many participants were yet to confirm their attendance.

The foreign minister suggested deferring the event. That decision was not announced officially, but was communicated to the CII, to major diaspora bodies overseas and to the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre that helps the ministry of overseas Indian affairs run its programmes for NRIs and PIOs.

But the move to defer the already stripped-down event triggered unease within the overseas Indian affairs ministry and the office of PM Narendra Modi, who has made diaspora outreach a key pillar of his foreign policy.

January 9 had been selected as the date for the annual celebrations in 2003 because it was the day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi returned to the country from South Africa.

Critics of the move within the government pressured Sushma to rethink, officials said.

Changing the date of the event, they contended, would send a confusing signal to the over 20 million NRIs and PIOs abroad amid Modi's highly public appeals during every foreign trip to the Indian overseas community to invest in India.

Photo credit: The Telegraph