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Fishing for the Real Jindal |
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Charitably, we hope that Jindal is a dishonest politician -- that his extreme right wing positions are only cynical political ploys. |
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By:
Achal Mehra
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Bobby Jindal's election as the first non-white governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction has simultaneously evoked jubilation and consternation among Indian Americans.
Jindal, the youngest governor in the country, routed his opponents in an open primary, avoiding a run-off - a first for the state. Even more remarkably, Louisiana is right wing country, in which only two decades ago Klu Klux Klansman David Duke seriously bid for the governor's job.
Jindal is the first Indian American governor ever in the United States; four years earlier he became only the second Indian American Congressman in U.S. history after Dilip Singh Saund.
Over the years, Indian Americans have contributed generously to Jindal's political coffers. But they were, glaringly, absent from his public campaigns. Jindal never invokes his roots on the campaign trail and even as a child renounced his Indian name (Piyush) and Hindu religion. He converted to Christianity as a teenager and embraced fundamentalist right wing Republican policies.
Therein lies the rub.
His religious conversion is purely a personal matter. It would be cynical to assume that political expediency prompted his conversion as a teenager. Whether Jindal's extreme political positions on hot button issues - embrace of the NRA, opposition to abortion and advocacy of prayer in schools - are sincere or calculated to win over Louisiana's fundamentalist voters is difficult to fathom. He is a policy wonk, who served as the youngest president of the Louisiana State University system while only in his 20s and led senior government health services at the state and federal level before jumping into electoral politics. His two terms in Congress were undistinguished, as he bid his time for a gubernatorial run.
The public hoopla in India - bhajans, prayers, vigils and other gaudy celebrations - over Jindal's victory and before him over the astronaut Sunita Williams and the TV Idol airhead Sanjaya Malakar borders on the silly. But such idolatry is always disdainful, regardless of who is exalted, especially if their connections to the homeland are tenuous.
For Indian Americans, however, it is different. We have a multiplicity of identities, reflected in people who are more Indian than Indians to those, such as Jindal, who strive to one-up the Americans. Jindal's politics do not represent, nor does he pretend to speak for, the community. Truthfully, no one really does.
Charitably, we hope that Jindal is a dishonest politician - that his extreme right wing positions are cynical political ploys.
But we do not have to share someone's politics to celebrate his success. So let us hold our collective noses at his ideology and embrace Jindal. Better him than some other right wing ideologue in Louisiana, which, unsurprisingly, given its backwater politics, is among the poorest states in the Union.
That is the politically expedient thing for Indian Americans to do. Jindal will understand all too well. | |
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Dimsdale
Sat Mar 15, 2008
fishing for the real Jindal
Typically, Mr. Mehra tears down a highly accomplished desi simply on the basis of his political leanings. Mehra insults Jindal's veracity and positions based purely on Mehra's political leanings. This is wrong. Apparently, if you don't agree with Achal Mehra, something must be wrong with you. Yeah. Sure.
Mehra even insinuates that Jindal doesn't even associate himself with his Indian roots, implying that he rejects India if he does not have a large retinue of Indians around him at all times. Why do we always have to play the race card, Achal? Jindal doesn't need to prove his desiness to you, or anyone. He just has to undo the damage done to Louisiana by Democrat leadership.
Trust me, if political expediency were the reason for converting to Christianity, in the south, it wouldn't be Roman Catholicism. It would be Baptist or some one of the other more prevalent Protestant religions.
Has Mehra even met Jindal? I would guess not, particularly judging from his commentary. This article is painfully devoid of any journalistic qualities, and is really a partisan hit piece by a person that seems to be both jealous and threatened by Jindal's skill, intelligence and veracity.
If that is the case, then be afraid, be very afraid. Jindal is going places. If Obama was 1/100th of the person Jindal is, he would be a viable candidate. Likewise Hillary. Their cumulative experience pales next to Jindal's.
Dimsdale
Wed Nov 14, 2007
Your facts
Right wing country? Did Duke win? No! Jindal was elected (even by liberals!) in a relative landslide to correct years of DEMOCRAT corruption and mismanagement. He may not speak for the community, but why do you think you do?
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