"Desis" in Congress

EDIT (11/13/06): I forgot to mention this earlier, but perhaps the most important impact made by an Indian-American was by a person who wasn't a candidate at all! I am, of course, talking about Mr. S.R. Sidharth, who was a campaign worker for Jim Webb, Senator-elect from Virginia and was insulted by George Allen who called him "macaca," a racist slur that means monkey. That statement turned this "Republican-leaning" state into a "toss-up" which was colored blue on election election. Here are some articles on Mr. S.R. Sidharth, one which he gave to The Washington Post in August and one he gave today to Deccan Herald. And of course, everyone and their grandmother's in laws now know that Virginia's race ended up coloring a blue majority in the Senate, thereby shattering the evil "genious" Karl Rove's hopes of a "permanent Republican majority." By the way, does anyone else think that "permanent Republican majority" sounds a lot like "Thousand Year Reich?"

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Here in India, people share a kinship with other Indians all around the world, always very eager to hear how their brothers and sisters in far off lands are faring. Today was no exception. In today's Deccan Herald, almost the entire "Foreign" news page was devoted to the U.S. midterm elections. Of that space, about half was devoted to how Indian-Americans fared in various federal, state, and local races.

There were quite a few Indian-Americans who ran for the U.S. Congress, but only one was reelected. This person is Mr. Bobby Jindal, R-La. It is pretty sad that he's the sole representative of Indians in Congress though. He's about as far of a right-wing nutcase as you can get.

For starters, he has a 0% rating on conservation and environment related issues from Defenders of Wildlife, and during the 109th Congress, he voted on everything from drilling and spilling in the Arctic Wildlife National Refuge to helping the "America's Number 1 Wildlife Villain" and soon-to-be-out-of-work Congressman Richard Pombo, R-Calif, redefine the historic Endangered Species Act. On other issues, his stance is no better. He is against abortion in all cases, even in the case of rape or incest, and he has not yet stated his stance on abortion when the mother's life is at stake. And he is a exteme jingoist, who supports a constitutional amendment prohibiting flag burning!

Hmm, I thought that the constitution was to ensure that the fundamentally inherent rights of all human beings weren't taken away. But these new brand of Republicans want the Constitution to be pretty much another legislature, whether it be with flag burning or gay marriage. The Constitution tried legislating once, with prohibition, and we all know how great that turned out.

Anyway, so what about the remainder of the desi candidates? Well, I don't know too much about them. Although, I would not have minded if Mr. Raj Bhakta had won election to Congress. He was running for a congressional district that covered some of northeast Philadelphia and parts of Montgomery County, Jenkintown, etc. The man's half Indian, half Irish. Now you might be asking, "Vivek, how could you support someone who ran against Allyson Schwartz, who received a 100% conservation rating from Defenders of Wildlife? Well, first of all, Raj ran as a pro-environment Republican. His web site stated his opposition against drilling in the Arctic as well as how he would fight against members of his own party and the president to protect the environment. That very important issue was quickly off the table. And he supported the India-US nuclear deal while Allyson Schwartz voted opposes it. But he lost, pretty handily. It was hard for anyone to win this year who had a R following their name, borne out by the story of Lincoln Chafee, Republican Senator from Rhode Island who is actually to the Left of five Democrats in the Senate and who did not vote for George Bush in 2004.

So for the moment at least, Mr. Jindal remains the only desi in the Capitol building. And he is a far cry from the last desi in Congress, Mr. Dalip Singh Saund, who represented the 29th district of California from 1957 - 1963. Unlike, Mr. Saund, who was a progressive and campaigned for South Asians to be naturalized (prior to the Luce-Celler Act being passed in 1946, South Asians were considered "unassimilable" and were not able to become naturalized citizens of the U.S.), Mr. Jindal is yet one more self-righteous Republican bigot from the South. Oh, well, perhaps in the coming years, there will be someone who I as an Indian can be proud of.