Close on heels of BJP win in India, Hindu-American activists pitch for select US candidates

HaindavaKeralam - Close on heels of BJP win in India, Hindu-American activists pitch for select US candidates 

Close on the heels of the spectacular BJP win in the general election,
Hindu-American activists in the United States have for the first time,
under the banner of a political action committee, publicly endorsed a
slate of congressional candidates in the 2014 US primaries.

Leading
the list of candidates winning support from the Hindu American
Political Action Committee (HAPAC) is Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi
Gabbard from Hawaii, a self-declared American Hindu, who, HAPAC said,
"has consistently stood by the Hindu-American community on every major
domestic and international issue."

"She has not shied away from
her Hindu faith and identity, has attending many events in the
Hindu-American community, has met Hindu leaders outside the US and India
to share thoughts about problems worldwide, and has inspired many Hindu
Americans to be proud of their identity," the committee said, in
broadly defining the litmus test for their support.

Also winning
HAPAC endorsement are California Republican Ed Royce, chairman of the
house foreign relations committee and co-chair of the India caucus, and
Democrats Brad Sherman, Joe Crowley, Eric Swalwell, and Indian-American
lawmaker Ami Bera.

Royce and Sherman were recognized for
opposition to house Resolution 417, a legislation that Hindu-American
activists say is an anti-pluralist and anti-India bill that would have
damaged India-US relations while masquerading as one that upholds
India's diversity. Crowley and Swalwell were praised for helping push
the FBI into tracking anti-Hindu hate crimes.

HAPAC also endorsed
Indian-American Democratic candidates Manan Trivedi and Swati Dandekar,
fighting primaries in Pennsylvania and Iowa respectively, and state
senate majority leader Ellen Corbett in California.

Without
specifically endorsing anyone, it made a special mention of the much
watched race for the 17th congressional district in California, which is
in the heart of Silicon Valley, where 2 Indian Americans (Ro Khanna and
Dr Vanilla Singh) are running against an incumbent Mike Honda. Citing
the work of each of the candidates for Hindu Americans, HAPAC urged the
community to vote in the "historic race".

HAPAC activists
acknowledged that this is the first election cycle they have been active
in although the community has been contributing to (and thus endorsing)
candidates since the fall of 2013.

"With a number of primary
elections coming up on June 3 in different states, we felt it would be a
good idea to collate all of those endorsements together for voters
heading to the polls," chairman of the HAPAC board Rishi Bhutada told
TOI. The primary criteria for endorsement are the candidates' support
for the Hindu-American community and for pluralistic ideals, besides
standing a realistic chance of winning their race, he added.

While
HAPAC is nowhere near as powerful as the famed American Israeli
Political Action Committee (AIPAC), which US politicians of every hue
try to court, Hindu Americans say theirs is a modest beginning. Data
from the Center for Responsive Politics website opensecrets.org showed
HAPAC has raised only around $18,000 to date. But, the more important
development was organizing and elevating individual contribution into
collective action.

Bhutada said he did not see a link to Indian
politics in terms of what Hindu-American PAC is doing while presenting
the increased community engagement in American politics as a natural
extension of the growing Hindu-American community in the US.

"Of
course, with the new government (in India), there is definite interest
in the community for increased cooperation between the US government and
the Indian government, and we hope that occurs," he added.