ARE INDIANS THE NEW JEWS?:

USINPAC's Puri: 'Sky's The Limit' For Bobby Jindal: With Republican Bobby Jindal, a 32-year-old second-generation Indian American, locked in a runoff to become Louisiana's next governor, NationalJournal.com's Jennifer Koons spoke with Sanjay Puri, who is in charge of Capitol Hill outreach for the U.S. India Political Action Committee, about the impact of Jindal's campaign on the broader Indian American community. (National Journal, Oct. 15, 2003)

Q. More than 1.7 million Indian Americans live in the United States today. Census results suggest Indian Americans are more educated and better off financially than many other groups. So why has there not been much news about Indian-Americans' active political involvement -- is this because they are not as involved as other demographics?

A. You're right, the census shows about 2 million Indian Americans. I think that the interesting part about that is that they're growing at the rate of 10 percent every year. They're doubling the numbers each census. Also, if you look at the breakdown of 2 million, there are close to 40,000 physicians in that group, half a million in the IT sector and then about half a million in the hospitality sector owning hotels and motels. It's a pretty highly educated group.

As far as the political process, why nobody's talked about it, because, you
know, it's the typical immigrant story -- when they came in they were
looking to build their homes, their families, to educate themselves, their
children, to fulfill the American dream.

There have been attempts at their participating, but it has been relatively
too far and too infrequent. I think now we are seeing the evolution and the
majority. I think it's just going to escalate in a tremendous manner as we
go forward in the future. [...]

Q. USINPAC is a bipartisan organization that supports Indian American
candidates for office regardless of their political affiliation. Many devout
Hindus have expressed extreme dissatisfaction with Bobby Jindal's
gubernatorial bid in Louisiana, saying that he is too Americanized or too
Christian. How has the organization successfully balanced these opposing
sides?

A. The way our organization is built we don't look at religion or any
of those issues. On the sum of it was, is Bobby a good candidate? Is he a
good American? Does he have the skills to be a great candidate? A person's
religous beliefs are really between a person and himself. We don't make
judgments on that.

Looking at the track record of Bobby Jindal and having had the chance to
meet him several times and talk to him, he is just an exceptional candidate
who has proven time and again that wherever he goes, he produces results.
And I think it's really a statement from the people in Louisiana that they
want a results-oriented person -- and a person's background in terms of his
international origin or whatever else really doesn't matter. So that's the
course we have taken during this race. [...]

Q. Your organization raised roughly $19,000 for both political parties in
2002. Will you continue to raise money for both President Bush and the
Democratic nominee in the 2004 election?

A. Well, we raised a lot more money since 2002, because we're almost at the end of 2003. So we will continue to raise money and continue to support candidates who support our issues.

As far as the presidential candidates, we have had the real privilege of
having most of the Democratic candidates come in and present their views on
the issues that are important to our community at meetings. We would love to
have President Bush also come in and talk to us, and that invitation is open
to him.