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Kishan Putta, 40, is possibly the first Indian-American to run for a city council seat in Washington, D.C., which is surprising because this traditionally segregated city has over the last few decades seen an influx of South Asians who could possibly exercise their vote. So many of them also work on Capitol Hill. If elected for the At-Large seat Nov. 4, Putta will make history by becoming the first Indian-American and first Asian to be on the City Council.
Putta wants to make sure that the City Council reflects what he sees as an increasingly diversifying population that includes many more young South Asians as well as other ethnicities, some of them even registered to vote. And while they may not be decisive for his victory, he hopes to energize them and other minorities in the government town that has its own largely unnoticed government, overshadowed as it is by the Big Brother on Capitol Hill.
Multiculturalism in D.C. may be the signature contribution of international institutions like The World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and it is true that the city has traditionally compartmentalized the lives of its residents. On one end is Capitol Hill and the political heartbeat of the country; on the other are the international organizations, and in-between it all is the black and white divide, with pockets of bohemian/ethnically diverse Adam’s Morgan, bookended by the elite Georgetown and bureaucratic Foggy Bottom, at one end and patches of underserved, largely black, but slowly gentrifying areas east of 13th Street.
In an interview with News India Times, Putta said he is hoping to trounce the motley crowd of some 15 candidates running for the two At-Large seats. “Only 7 or 8 are running a serious campaign and I think I can defeat the 6,” says the graduate of Dartmouth College who studied health policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is running as an Independent and has been an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for the last two years, focusing on helping his constituents and residents in other parts of the city sign up for Obamacare. That as well as his highly grassroots work resuscitating a park and repairing bike lanes, have stood him in good stead during his campaign. He won his ANC position with 60 percent of the vote in the greater Dupont Circle area, and his former opponents are now campaigning for him he says. “That shows I work to bring consensus and bring people together – when my former opponents are now my friends,” Putta says. As a Commissioner he says he has had the opportunity to work with people of different races and ethnicities.
Married to a State Department official, Divya Swamy, who is barred from campaigning for him but who he says does give him moral support, Putta now needs a last-minute infusion into his campaign war chest. He has raised some $40,000 so far and another $10,000 would put him over the edge he says. Even if he is able to raise another $5,000, it would go a long way, he says, and urges Indian-Americans and other friends and supporters around the country to chip in at his website kishanfordc.com.
All hands are on deck in the last few days of campaigning. His parents, Jhansi and Sury Putta, both lifelong New York State government employees, are coming down from Albany to help him; as are his in-laws. And friends around the country will soon have the voter lists Putta will send them to begin the phone calls on Election Day urging citizens of D.C. to go to the polls and vote the Indian-American in.
“Cities are getting more diversified. But we need to make sure residents who have been here for years are not driven out either,” Putta says. “Unfortunately, our city government is not diversified enough. This is no longer a black and white city. No Asian-American has run for office or been elected to date,” he notes. As he speaks, two dozen volunteers are fanning out and he expects more to join in for door-to-door campaigning. “We are hoping thousands will come out for us.”
