US: Indian American political body launches action fund

The Indian American Leadership Initiative, founded by political activist Varun Nikore a decade ago to promote Indian-American participation in the mainstream political process and to support the community's candidates at the local, state and national levels, formally launched its political action committee on Capitol Hill in September-end.

Endorsing the initiative, Kansas Representative Rajiv Goyle, who is making a run for the United States Congress from the state's fourth Congressional District on a Democratic ticket, said, "I know that I would, not have run had I not known that there was an infrastructure in place like this."

Other prominent attendees at the launch included Maryland House Majority Leader Kumar Barve, Obama administration officials Sonal Shah, director of the White House Office of Social Innovation, and Ro Khanna, deputy assistant secretary of Commerce, major donors like Rajeev Sharma, president and chief executive officer of ABSi Corp, Shekar Narasimhan, CEO of Beekman Advisors and Krishna Vallabhani, and scores of young political activists.

Goyle spoke of how in 1995, when he was a young intern in Washington, DC, there was no such infrastructure for Indian Americans seeking political office.

"Yet here we are tonight, here we have before us a truly historic moment where we now have an organisation with incredible elected officials in the room -- my great friend Jay (Goyal), Kumar, incredible appointees -- Sonal (Shah) and Ro (Khanna) -- it is truly amazing to think how far we've come."

The community, Goyle argued, could have the most talented and charismatic of candidates, it can have a massive donor base, "but unless you have infrastructure, you will not win a campaign".

Contributing generously to the IALI's political action committee was vital, Goyle said, because 'this organisation is putting the muscle behind candidates like us and like my Congressional run out in Kansas".

He said his generation had it considerably easier than its predecessor, which had to struggle to break into a new, alien world.

"After me, well beyond me and well beyond us, because of what we are doing here tonight and the infrastructure that you have built, there is a desi kid in some state somewhere who is playing around, probably in some playground, who is going to be the president of the United States. And that is why you have to support this organisation."

Rajeev Sharma said while he and his wife Seema, who doubles up as the IALI's treasurer, belong to many organisations, they were attracted them to IALI "because we haven't seen any other organisation that has a mission to cultivate and grow young Indian Americans to political office -- and that's very, very important because it's not just about politics, it's about having a seat at the table".

Lamenting that while the community was one of the wealthiest in the country it was disproportionately represented politically, Sharma said this anomaly was what IALI seeks to address.

"It's all about awareness, because often when Indian Americans are asked to contribute to young and up and coming Indian American candidates, it is very difficult to convince them to do so. It is easier to convince them to contribute to an existing member of Congress and get a picture. So it's all an issue of awareness and education, and that's a very important mission that IALI has."

IALI's newly installed president Kathy Kulkarni said she was overwhelmed by the response the IALI-PAC had received in the few short months since it had been constituted, and disclosed that funds collected had exceeded USD 100,000 (Rs 47 lakh).

Kulkarni, who for years was a close aide of US Congressman Frank Pallone and now runs a lobbying firm Rubicon Advisers, said IALI today was the undisputed leader "in bringing in more Indian Americans Democrats to participate politically and run for office".

IALI Vice President Anurag Varma, partner at the lobbying firm of Patton Boggs, said the immediate priority was to spread the message of the organisation. 'We need to start talking about Indian Americans being elected and appointed to office in every corner of this country,' he said, declaring that Goyle would be IALI's poster boy because of the confidence the organisation had in his prospect of becoming the next Indian-American Democrat candidate elected to the US Congress, five decades after Dalip Singh Saund was elected from California.

Image: The launch of Indian American Leadership Initiative's action committee