Dollars and scents
DNA
Robinder Sachdev / July 12, 2007

On July 2, 2007, just weeks after announcing that they were ready to accept employment-based visa applications from hundreds of thousands of legal immigrant professionals, many of whom have been waiting for years, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) did a volte face and announced that their applications would not be entertained till further notice.

Not surprisingly, there were thousands of disappointed professionals. And how did they express frustration at this emotional roller coaster, considering that they had pumped over $250 million into the US economy in application and legal fees, medical expenses and so on? By taking the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi to the doorsteps of the US administration.

While mainstream America goes on with its business as usual, there is a refreshing whiff of diversity in its politics that is now blowing from the ethnics and enriching mainstream politics.

A literal experience of this fragrance reached Emilio Gonzalez, the director of the USCIS, when his office in Washington, DC, received flower bouquets by the hundreds on July 10, in a unique protest by the many affected in this flip-flop by his department. It was Gandhigiri, immigrant style.

However, this was brilliantly countered by reverse Gandhigiri by him when he issued a statement saying, “I understand that individuals are planning to send flowers to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) beginning on Tuesday, July 10.USCIS has made arrangements to forward those flowers to our injured service members recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at Bethesda Naval Hospital.”

This phenomenon is a unique display of cross-pollination of democratic thought across cultures wherein ideas rooted in the principles of Mahatma Gandhi, who led a life that exemplified the power of righteousness and its ultimate triumph and shook an empire with his unique non-violent protests, are being used to register a protest in a foreign culture in the 21st century. And the target too is using Gandhian principles to minimise damage — a radical difference in a culture where lawsuits are the first recourse in any dispute.

This example of democratic innovation from an ethnic community in the US — the protest is led mainly by people of Indian origin — comes soon after another milestone in mainstream American politics. Last month, the Indian-American community gave over $3million to Senator Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The power of ideas is the oxygen of any democracy, and over the centuries the United States has vigorously nurtured an environment that fosters the flowering of democratic debate. Participation in this debate has often meant that interest groups coalesce to influence public policy — and more often than not, the mother’s milk of politics has been campaign finance.

This is a historic summer in which ethnics have contributed unprecedented dollars and ideas to American politics. The globalised, multicultural, interconnected world is a reality, one hitting home in the US. Presidential candidates from Senator Clinton to potentials like Newt Gingrich need to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’...or flowers? These ethnics are also bringing in newer forms of democratic messaging.

The ethnics bring not only their wallets to the fund raisers, but also their cultural prisms into American politics. The smart candidate goes not after their dollars, but seeks creativity and newer forms of democratic thought which could enrich American society and global communities. Ideas from ethnics may at times provide an innovative break from the groupthink of mainstream politics — in addition to spending millions of dollars on research on foreign policy and hundreds of hours on foreign trips to understand foreign cultures, it may well benefit American leaderships to leverage the presence of ethnics in their own backyard.

Images and imagination flow across borders and, in the case of India, the much talked about film industry has at last produced a symbol that has inspired action in a foreign culture. Little did Gonzalez then know that the hundreds of bouquets on his desk owed their origins to an Indian film, Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Well, now he does. Dollars in political contributions and the scents of ideas inspired by Gandhi — the ethnics are making sense in American politics.

The writer is cofounder of the US India Political Action Committee