Descend into the Maelstrom

This month Bobby Jindal of Louisiana became the first Indian-American to be elected state governor in United States history, winning office with a solid
54% of the vote. The media has been
fawning over this 36-year old Rhodes Scholar, who had already become a darling
of conservatives as well as Indians (the latter aren’t always the former) across the nation when he was elected to US
Congress in 2004, only the second Indian to have ever reached that height.

            I am one of
the many Indian-Americans who are not entirely pleased with Bobby Jindal’s
rise. Jindal has created personal
conflict for me as different aspects of my identity collide. It’s classic Man vs. Self. Should I be happy that a guy won because he
is brown and shares my ancestral motherland? My first inclination is to say no, because I think that it is manifestly
racist to vote for or support candidates on the basis of their ethnicity. This can be somewhat problematic for a person
who thinks of himself as open-minded. On
the other hand, shouldn’t I be celebrating the major precedent set by an Indian
getting elected to high office right there in the segregated, racially charged Deep
South? That an Indian has overcome
long odds to attain power in the swamp where education lags behind the rest of
the country, corruption is as bad as it gets in America,
in the state that nearly witnessed the collapse of a major city? After all, Jindal arrived in office on a
reform platform and figures to be more competent than his predecessor, Democrat
Kathleen Blanco. And there is no doubt
that Bobby Jindal’s victory will inspire not only Indians to enter the
political process, but probably immigrants and minorities of all stripes. How could one argue against that?

            Because it’s worth doing. Bobby Jindal is a rising star not only of the
Indian American community, but of America itself.  At this level he should be
treated strictly on his merits as a public servant. Jindal isn’t representing a small segment of our
society, but our society in its entirety: it’s high time he is judged as an American by
another American. He was born and raised
in America, and
does not seem to have deep connections to India,
certainly not as deep as mine.  There are
zero policy implications arising from him being Indian.  His “Indian-ness” isn’t inherently doing
anything for other Indians.  The positions he has taken so far are bad news for this country as a
whole- in fact they make it very easy not to root for the guy. 

Where to begin? As far as I’m concerned Jindal is on the wrong
side of just about every important issue. He was pro-Iraq invasion and has continued to be one of the first-string
cheerleaders of the disastrous occupation ever since. He is against abortion, against stem cell
research, and voted to restrict US funding for the United Nations. Jindal wants to extend the deeply flawed
Patriot Act indefinitely.  He believes
the deadly fiction that there is such a thing as a War on Terror and Iraq is somehow a part of it.  Speaking of
fiction, Jindal wants American schools to teach Intelligent Design, the radical
attempt to mask theology as science and discredit evolutionary theory, a
subject not even worthy of a third-world classroom. And he voted for the constitutional amendment
banning gay marriage, an escapade that was thankfully shot down before gaining
much steam.

All of which makes Mr. Jindal less
remarkable than he first seemed. One of
two forces is at play here and neither of them is positive: either Bobby Jindal
really is that backward, or he is a good political soldier who, for the
duration of his stepping-stone tenure in the House representing Louisiana,
blindly toed the line according to the wishes of his Grand Old Party
masters. I am inclined to think it is
the latter. Appointed head of Louisiana’s
Health & Hospitals at just the age of 24, he appears to be an intelligent
and accomplished young bureaucrat, even if he does have a bizarre side to him. For example, he renamed himself as a child from
the Indian name Piyush to Bobby based on the Brady Bunch character. He also truly believes that he has watched a
demon possess his friend, as he wrote about in “Beating a Demon: Physical
Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare” published in the New Oxford Review. Perhaps he can use those methods to exorcise Louisiana
of all its ills?
        Best of luck, Bobby.   It won’t be long before the headlines are taken by a more reasonable Indian-American voice, and you will have paved the way.