Brown making us frown: How the race to unseat Mike Miller (D-38) is bringing the Hindu right-wing with it.
As we see an influx of South Asian candidates running for public office in New York and across the country, we’re seeing an alarming rise in those who connect themselves with the right-wing in India.
In reading this story about South Asian representation, several thoughts ran through my mind as I grappled with the question: “If someone comes from my similar background, and they run for political office, will they fight for the communities they come from or will they bring the additional baggage of their casteist, right-wing Hindu nationalist and anti-black sentiments with them into office once they get there?”
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that not one person walking this earth is 100% perfect, myself included. I haven’t however, espoused feelings of commraderie with right-wing Hindu nationalists who have infilitrated our governing systems in the diaspora and how India works to undermine candidates and Members of Parliament or House of Representatives when they don’t agree with them. I do believe that running to excite a base of voters on the issues is the key to succeeding as a candidate, otherwise it’s just the color of our skin and the names we write down that make us the candidate people want.
More recently, in the race to unseat incumbent Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-38), candidate Joey Dejesus who is running against Mike Miller and Jenifer Rajkumar has recently come out three shocking points (among many others!) that we as the public haven’t been understanding while Rajkumar has been meeting with Desi civic organizations to court their vote and cloaking her candidacy as a win for the South Asian community while working against our policy interests. These points are:
- That she's accepting Real Estate developer money and that she was present at a community meeting in Glendale with homeowners who were using inflammatory language to describe how the homeless shelter isn’t welcome in Queens.
2. That she doesn’t support a Free CUNY as students continue to fight the austerity that is gripping CUNY and disenfranchises younger New Yorkers. Given the large amount of student loan debt in this country ($1.5 trillion+), Rajkumar has ultimately alienated a core demographic she should be reaching out to but is instead choosing to throw them under the bus.
3. This one is perhaps more damning of them all. According to the group Queens Against Hindu Fascism Jenifer Rajkumar has been greenlighting donations from right-wing Hindu nationalists. This flyer details the ways in which Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi is also complicit in being in close contact/aiding right-wing groups from India, in the United States in addition to highlighting the candidacy of Rajkumar as a serious threat.
Equality Labs, an advocacy group that works on behalf of Dalits, Muslims and other downtrodden groups in India and the diaspora and is against right-wing nationalism, caught up the story as well and were instrumental in raising the specter of Hindu nationalism in the United States. They have been on the frontlines of calling out caste privilege, fighting back against Narendra Modi and Donald Trump and frequently demonstrate outside the Indian consulate in opposition to the National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act.
These revelations are alarming especially considering the traumatic and horrifying riots in New Delhi earlier this week, during the visit of Donald Trump to meet the Prime Minister of India, noted right-wing agitator Narendra Modi. The riots have left communities burnt, looted and families have been torn apart by the violence that the goons have caused in predominately Muslim neighboorhoods in Delhi. Mosques have been set on fire, homes burnt to the ground and shops have been looted and burned of their content.
The trip was short-lived, and Narendra Modi ordered his staff to cover the slums around the areas that Trump would be visiting, so far as issuing eviction notices and building giant brick walls around slums so that Trump wouldn’t see them. As I noted in my previous post about the Indian-American love fest between Modi and Trump, the upcoming 2020 election will have the new frontier of Modi activating the diapora in America to come out for Trump and as detailed in this Politico article by Anita Kumar, Trump will continue to spend on targeted ads to the Indian-American community:
“Indian Americans are titans of business, masters of the arts and innovate technology like few others,” the ad reads. “Your contributions have strengthened our culture and economy. I will always fight for YOU!”
Another says, “America LOVES India,” and features a photo of Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi together. “Our economies have never been better, and the United States is eager to build a strong partnership with India.”
A third features Modi alone and lists education policies the Trump administration backs, including tax breaks to support private- and religious-school scholarships.
Republicans have been trying for years — with limited success — to make inroads with Indian Americans, one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States. Previous campaigns reached out to the Indian American community, largely through in-person events or literature, but likely didn’t purchase ads specific to the community. Even with some of the president’s divisive language and plans on immigration, Trump’s team thinks it has a better chance this year because of Trump’s policies, his outreach efforts and his praise for Modi, who is popular in India.
Some Indian Americans, whose families came to the United States legally to study or work, support Trump because of his economic agenda — especially the 2017 tax cuts — and his policies to crack down on illegal immigration. But he has angered some in the community by kicking India out of a trade preference program for developing countries and trying to intervene in the long-standing dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region.
In 2016, more than 80 percent of Indian Americans voted for Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, according to polling by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
That year, about 1.2 million Indian American were registered to vote, according to Asian American and Pacific Islanders Data. That number is expected to rise to 1.4 million in 2020.
It’s not that we can’t have representation + progressive policy with the South Asian candidates that do end up being elected to the New York State legislature, it’s just that now it’s becoming more apparent than ever that we conduct the right vetting and put identity to the sidelines. Jenifer is not the right choice for Assembly District 38 and voters should not consider her when they go to vote on June 23rd. Democrats in New York and on the national level must understand the deadly impact of Hindu nationalism and how destructive it can be to the diaspora in addition to Indian interests.
Across the United States, we have similar candidates to Jenifer Rajkumar like Dr. Pritesh Gandhi who is running for Congress for in Texas -10.
We must make it clear that that the politics of hate have no space in our electoral politics and does not have space in New York City. It should be automatically disqualifying to be a candidate that is running a campaign funded by BJP-affliates. Democrats must do better. We are not the party of hate.
UPDATE: since I last wrote this post, several things have transpired.
1) Jenifer Rajkumar has been using her campaign email with her ‘People for Jenifer’ account on Twitter. Which means either she or someone else is tweeting inaccuracies in her political positions.
2) she misgendered her political opponent Joey DeJesus and claimed that she was was the victim of a misogynist attack (but we were just trying to figure out where she stood on key issues like Higher Education, cops, etc)
3) she started blocking people who were being critical of her campaign. I’m included in this.
4) Marty Gould Cummings is now running for City Council District 7 also weighed in by saying this:
