POWERPLAY: THE NEW INDIAN AMERICAN NETWORK IN WASHINGTON
PRESIDENTIAL? KAMALA HARRIS, 51
The first Indian American elected to the US Senate, her heritage is mixed: African American (Jamaican from her her father’s side) and Indian American (her mother is from Chennai). Desis wonder which way she leans. “She hasn’t had as much of an outreach to the community as we would like her to,” said an Indian American Democrat, who requested anonymity, ”but we understand she has a bigger constituency to cater to, the African-Americans.” They are willing to cut her some slack, they say, if she needs to make it to the White House, a goal that appears tantalisingly close to the community because of the dizzying rise of Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to UN, a cabinet-level position that sets her up for a run, at least in the eyes of many Indian American Republicans.
THE RESISTANCE PRAMILA JAYAPAL, 51
Jayapal was born in India. She came to the US as a 16-year-old student and stayed on. She has emerged as one of the leading lights of the Resistance, a movement launched by Democrats to rally their troops against President Trump, leveraging her expertise as an immigrant lawyer. The objective of the bicameral legislation she moved with Senator Kamala Harris was to guarantee legal counsel to those detained or held under Trump’s first executive order temporarily banning citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. With her political hero Bernie Sanders, the hard-charging progressive, she moved legislation aimed at guaranteeing free college education to eligible students and helping others pay off their college loans.
SILICON VALLEY MAN ROHIT ‘RO’ KHANNA, 39
Khanna has been as busy as his other Indian American colleagues. He has sponsored one legislation and co-sponsored 108, essentially signing on to those moved by other lawmakers (just for perspective, Krishnamurthi sponsored 5 and co-sponsored 51, Jayapal 3 and 132 and Bera, 1 and 64). Among those Khanna co-sponsored was one that proposed tightening the H-1B visa programme to discourage outsourcing and encourage companies to hire locally. While this made him seem anti-India, Khanna’s position was that the nation was in the mood to “fix abuse”. Many Indian Americans said “he has to represent his constituency.” And his constituency is Silicon Valley.
PEOPLE’S PERSON RAJA KRISHNAMURTHI, 42
He has charted a course for himself that, said a Democrat strategist, is based on his belief that “his best use is somewhere between all these Indian Americans”, with a distinctly clear pitch to the community and a readiness to cooperate with it at every opportunity. His bipartisan effort as a legislator on hate crimes in the aftermath of the murder of Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Olathe, Kansas, was well received and widely covered in the media. More than 70 lawmakers, including his Samosa Caucus colleagues, signed a letter addressed to John Kelly, the Secretary of Homeland Security, on the issue. Krishnamurthi was born in Delhi’s Willingdon Hospital, since rechristened Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.
‘DEAN OF CAUCUS’ AMI BERA, 51
A doctor by training, Bera, the senior-most among Indian American legislators, is into his third term. Each of his elections were nail-bitingly close. His politics is centrist, accommodative of the disparate streams of thought. He is said to be the Dean of the Caucus. Born to Gujarati immigrants from India, Bera has retained a strong, continuing link with India. In his previous two terms, he emerged as an influential voice on South Asia. He travelled to India and co-chaired the India Caucus in the House of Representatives. “The Indian American community has done very well… One day we may see an Indian American President – after all, this is the America we believe in,” he said in an interview. He is, however, not a big fan of the name ‘Samosa Caucus’.