FREMONT: The Indian community created history when it helped elect most of its community members as delegates for Assembly District 25 on March 10. An appreciation dinner was held on April 27 to acknowledge this feat and plan on harnessing the strength of community to give it a representation in the nation’s political landscape.
Dinner was attended by many of the local community and political leaders. Addressing the gathering, Dr Romesh Japra, Chairman and Convener of Federation of Indo Americans – Northern California (FIA) said that while the Indian community has shown great results and contributions in all walks of American life, we have not been able to make much inroads into the political field as we were not united.
“A few of the members who tried for political office faced tough challenges as they could not muster lot of endorsements as they are key to winning popular support and thus elections.” Dr Japra said it is imperative for the community to come together and work towards getting a voice in the political arena. One of key steps would be to support Ro Khanna for the Congressman elections in 2014 from AD 25, he asserted.
Ro Khanna is lecturer at Stanford University and has been US Department of Commerce Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Obama administration.
Dr Japra said this is a country where everyone can be whatever he or she wants to be. No race, ethnicity or other considerations can deter anyone from realizing their “American Dream”. He encouraged the community to come together and support his bid for Congress in 2014 from Assembly District 25.
Rahul Roy, entrepreneur, said that this is an awakening call for the community. That means the community should realize that individually we always have done well as engineers, doctors, attorneys, businessmen, accountants or any other profession and are very successful. But we have never made any impression politically because when we are divided, selfish and narrow minded, it is easy to be sidelined. We need to wake up and plan for the next generation.
We should encourage our kids to choose politics besides other professions as politics is lot better in America. We need a cohesive and integrated community.
Yogi Chugh, Dharminder Diwan and Rajesh Verma also stressed the need for the community to stand together as one to make progress in political field.
Indian National Overseas Congress Head and Vice President Gurwant Singh Pannu, Purshottam Bajaj, Dr Narendra Singh Karir and Vjay Thapar were instrumental in organizing the grassroot support for the delegate elections that resulted in a surge in Indian community representation among the delegates.
One of the elected delegates, Dharminder Diwan said that we have taken the first step towards political relevance and need to continue this path of being active and staying active at the grass root level, so that we are not taken for granted. Being citizens of this country we are contributing to the financial strength but need to increase contribution towards the political strength of the Democratic Party. This is a new beginning and our goal is to continue to awaken the “sleeping giant”, our community, by getting them continuously motivated, energized and involved in the local Democratic party and clubs and help elect qualified candidates at every level of govt.
Bay Area Indian American Democratic Club (BAIADC) president Rishi Kumar urged the Indian community to come forward and become part of the BAIADC to support Indian candidates in the political field. This event was also an opportunity for attending Democrats to register their support for the delegates club. This marked the launch of a membership drive to eventually make community get a say in the region and the country’s political process.
Ritu Maheshwari
India Post News Service
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