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American dream: il nuovo governatore della Louisiana, 36 anni, immigrato dall'India

Autore: Orma




Indian is elected Governor in US
The Times of India, 22 ottobre 2007

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON: A full century after the first Indian immigrants to the US were driven out of the country after what came to be known as the Bellingham riots, a conservative American state has elected an Indian-American as Governor.

Bobby Jindal, a boyish 36-year-old US-born son of Indian immigrants won more than 50% of the primary votes in a field of 12 candidates to break a host of records, including becoming the first Indian-American to hold Governor’s office.

Jindal will also become the youngest current Governor in the country when he is sworn into office in January, and the first member of an ethnic minority to become the chief executive of a historic state that, when purchased by Thomas Jefferson from Napoleon in 1803 for $15 million nearly doubled the size of the US and gave birth to 15 other states.

Jindal’s election marks a high-point in the history of Indian immigration to America, which began at the turn of the 19th century. The first regular immigrants from Punjab reached British Columbia and the Pacific northwest and moved down south to California, which would eventually elect the first Indian-American – Dalip Singh Saund — to Congress in 1956. Jindal became only the second person of Indian origin to be elected to Congress — from Louisiana — in 2004.

In 1907, racist whites rioted against "Hindus" (as even Sikhs were called) in the town of Bellingham in Washington state, causing many to flee the country and staunched immigration for a while. Today, that now-liberal state, home to Microsoft and Boeing, has a well-settled Indian immigrant population.

Louisiana, in the deep south, is of different timbre in a different corner of the country, which makes Jindal’s election all the more remarkable.


Indian-American Elected Louisiana’s Governor
Adam Nossiter, The New York Times, 20 ottobre 2007

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 20 — Bobby Jindal, a conservative Republican congressman from the New Orleans suburbs and the son of immigrants from India, was elected Louisiana’s governor Saturday, inheriting a state that was suffering well before Hurricane Katrina left lingering scars two years ago.

Mr. Jindal, 36, defeated three main challengers in an open primary. With more than 90 percent of the vote counted, he received 53 percent, above the 50 percent-plus-one threshold needed to avoid a runoff in November. He will be the nation’s first Indian-American governor when he takes office in January.

Mr. Jindal’s victory over a state Democratic party weakened by perceptions of post-hurricane incompetence and corruption was expected, as he has had an overwhelming lead in polls for months. The incumbent, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, hurt by stumbles after Hurricane Katrina, did not seek re-election.

The ascendancy of the Brown- and Oxford-educated Mr. Jindal, an unabashed policy wonk who has produced a stream of multipoint plans, is likely to be regarded as a racial breakthrough of sorts in this once-segregated state. Still, it is one with qualifiers attached.

For one thing, he is by now a familiar figure in Louisiana, having made a strong run for the governorship in 2003, though losing to Ms. Blanco. Before that he had held a series of high-profile administrative jobs, including state health secretary at the age of 24, when he earned a reputation for efficiency — critics said cold-bloodedness — for slashing a bloated budget, cutting jobs and lowering reimbursements to doctors.

For another, he did not have the support of a majority of the state’s blacks, about a third of the population, who vote Democratic.

Yet Mr. Jindal, with his decisive victory on Saturday, appears to have overcome a significant racial hurdle that blocked him in 2003, according to analysts: race-based opposition in the deeply conservative northern and eastern parishes of Louisiana that once supported the Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

A born-again Roman Catholic, Mr. Jindal made a particular campaign target of these areas, visiting them frequently and bringing his brand of devout Christianity to their rural churches. His social-conservative message — teaching “intelligent design” as an alternative to evolution in public schools, a total ban on abortion, repealing hate-crimes laws — would have been welcome in these areas.

Mr. Jindal campaigned as a cautious reformer, promising a more ethical government, for example, with greater transparency from lobbyists and legislators. His extensive résumé helped him project an image of competence, as did his detailed if conventional policy prescriptions — both evidently appealing to voters here weary of missteps in government since Hurricane Katrina.

But he faces significant challenges. He takes over what is now the nation’s poorest, most uneducated and most unhealthy state, by a number of important measures.

Cleaning up the Capitol in Baton Rouge, which Mr. Jindal has promised to make his first order of business, is unlikely to be regarded as a top priority, as it hardly has been in the past, by a Legislature jealous of its perquisites.

Mr. Jindal has promised to focus resources on the state’s ports, roads and research universities, which have received little state investment. But again, parochial interests and factionalism in a state with strong regional and ethnic divisions often work against these broader initiatives at the Capitol.

And Mr. Jindal, as a fiscal conservative, has had much to say about what he terms “out-of-control spending” but little about a regressive tax structure that relies heavily on sales taxes.

Relatives overjoyed as Indian American wins Louisiana governor's post
International Herald Tribune, 21 ottobre 2007


NEW DELHI: A daylong celebration was held Sunday in India for the relatives of U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, an ethnic Indian American who was elected Louisiana state governor.

"All the relatives are gathering at our ancestral home, and it'll be a big party for all our friends and family," the U.S. politician's cousin, Subhash Jindal, said by telephone from the family's hometown in Maler Kotla, a town in northern India's Punjab state.

Bobby Jindal, 36, has not visited his ancestral home for more than three decades — but that has not hampered the joy in Maler Kotla.

The family planned to celebrate with a traditional Punjabi bhangra folk dance to the beat of drums called dhols, setting off firecrackers and enjoying sweets, said another cousin, Harinder Jindal.

Jindal's victory was the top story on Indian television news. News channel CNN-IBN showed visitors congratulating relatives at the family's house in Maler Kotla.

Bobby Jindal, the Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants, is now the youngest governor in the U.S. and the first nonwhite to be Louisiana's governor since the 1870s.

A Republican, he carried more than half the vote Saturday against 11 opponents. With about 92 percent of the vote in, Jindal had 53 percent with 625,036 votes — more than enough to win outright and avoid a Nov. 17 runoff.

He is to take office in January

"We're so proud of our child," said his aunt, Vijaylakshmi Jindal. "He's achieved so much at such a young age."

Bobby's father, Amar Jindal, left Maler Kotla for the United States almost 40 years ago and settled in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

When the governor-elect, born Piyush Jindal, was 4 years old, he asked his parents to call him Bobby, after the youngest son on a then-popular U.S. family television show called "The Brady Bunch."

"You cannot imagine the joy we feel today," Subhash Jindal said.

"Now we want him to become president next," Subhash said. "If he can become a governor, then he can also be president."

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