Haley’s Comet
As more and more Indian Americans storm the citadels of political power behind Jindal and Haley, overcoming public prejudices against non Judaea Christian office seekers will be their next great challenge — and, hopefully, accomplishment.
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July 8, 2010 at 12:50 AM
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| State Representative Nikki Haley is on track to becoming the next governor of South Carolina. In the runoff Republican primary, Haley trounced Congressman Gresham Barrett with 65 percent of the vote. She now squares off against Democratic candidate Vincent Sheen in November and is heavily favored in the solidly Republican state. Haley overcame scurrilous allegations of marital infidelity and racial epithets in the run up to the primary. A conservative South Carolina blogger and a state lobbyist claimed they had sexual relations with Haley, charges she vigorously denied. Neither men produced any evidence to substantiate the alleged affairs. Republican State Senator Jake Knotts sought to derail Haley’s campaign by injecting ethnicity into the race with a racially incendiary remark: “We already got a rag head in the White House; we don’t need another rag head in the governor’s mansion.” If, as expected, Nimrata Randhawa Haley triumphs in November, she will become the second Indian American governor after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. Haley, whose parents migrated from India and whose father Ajit Randhawa has been a professor at Voorhees College in Bamberg, S.C., for the past 19 years, will be the first minority and woman in the state to be elected governor. Haley is one of eight Indians — and the only Republican — running for Congress or statewide offices during this election cycle. San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Devi Harris won the Democratic Primary for California state attorney general and is heavily favored in the solidly Democratic state against Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley. She stands to become the first Indian, African American and woman attorney general in California history. Manan Trivedi, a decorated War veteran and physician, won the Democratic Party primary in Pennsylvania to challenge Republican incumbent Jim Gerlach in November. And Surya Yalamanchili will challenge Republican Congresswoman Jean Schmidt in Ohio’s Second District. Four other Indians — Reshma Saujani in New York, Ravi Sangisetty in Louisiana, Ami Bera in California and Raj Goyle in Kansas — are vying for the Democratic Party nomination for Congress. Jindal and Haley have run hard to the right, which accounts for their improbable success in a party and states that are among the most conservative in the nation and not traditionally hospitable to minorities. Both of them are Christian converts. Jindal embraced Catholicism while still a teenager and wears his new faith on his sleeve in public forums. In 2007 he conspicuously abstained from voting on a non-binding U.S. House vote acknowledging “the international religious and historical importance of the festival of Diwali,” which passed 358-0.
In fairness to Jindal and Haley, even Pres. Barack Obama deployed his Christian credentials to deflect nagging rumors during the presidential campaign that he was a closet Muslim. Says Aseem Shukla, director of the Hindu America Foundation, “In the public remonstrations of their parent’s faiths,” Jindal and Haley demonstrate that while race may no longer be an impediment to high office, “a religious litmus test is clearly in play.” As more and more Indian Americans storm the citadels of political power behind Jindal and Haley, overcoming public prejudices against non Judaea Christian office seekers will be their next great challenge — and, hopefully, accomplishment. |
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