Some leading Republicans among Indian-Americans are rejoicing the victory of President-elect Donald Trump and claiming it will provide a boost for Indian-Americans and U.S.-India relations, apart from improving the American economy.
Shalabh ‘Shalli’ Kumar, a Chicago businessman and founder of the Republican Hindu Coalition, who organized a Bollywood style event attended by Trump just weeks before Nov. 8, says he ran the pro-Trump campaign “to get Hindu Americans in the country educated and voting for the right party and the right presidential candidate.”
“We were hugely successful,” Kumar said in an interview with News India Times. He also expressed confidence in a Trump administration recruiting Indian-Americans to top positions in his administration, like President Obama had done.
“I am on his Indian American Advisory Council, and it will be our push to include as many talented Hindu Americans and Indian Americans, particularly in the State Department,” Kumar said, adding, “We would like to bring about 20-30 into the administration.”
Kumar criticized the State Department contending it “has been occupied by pro-Islamist, too liberal elements, and anti-India people.”
As for relations with India, Kumar said his “deep discussions” on policy with Trump, lead him to believe the new president will keep his word about increasing trade, spurring joint defense treaties with India that do not compensate Pakistan, step up green cards for Indian visa holders waiting for years to get them, and push for India’s membership in the United Nations Security Council.
“Trump is all in for creating a system to bring the best and the brightest from around the world, including Indian-Americans here,” Kumar said.
These views were echoed by other leading Republicans including Dr. Sudhir Parikh, publisher of News India Times. “Relations with India will flourish and both countries want it. America wants a large market and the technical savvy of Indian youth. And it is a good partnership against China and Pakistan,” Parikh told News India times. Trump may have “over dramatized” issues like promising to throw out illegal immigrants, building a wall with Mexico, and temporarily banning Muslims from conflict-ridden areas, Parikh said, it was merely rhetoric in the heat of the campaign. “Immigration is a problem. The border should be secure and immigrants vetted properly,” Parikh added.
“Despite his personal shortcomings, Trump’s message resonated with the country because he was trying to address pain and suffering of middle classes, the loss of jobs going out of the country, and the North America Free Trade Agreement’s negative effects,” Parikh said.
Long-time Republican and delegate to several party conventions, Sampat Shivangi of Mississippi and a former Jeb Bush supporter, called Trump’s win one of the “greatest victories our time” when a man with no experience in public office “bulldozed the Clinton Machinery.” Apart from the nation, Shivangi said, the other bigger beneficiary would be India.
“Trump has promised to be best Friend (sic) in the White House India ever had. I am sure he will be, especially in eliminating or transforming Radical Islamists a menace that has inflicted the world especially by India’s closest neighbor,” Shivangi said referring to Pakistan without naming it, in a statement released Nov. 9. Calling the real-estate tycoon “An Average American” Shivangi said he had exposed the two standards applied to the elite and the “regular Joe” and “taught a biggest lesson to Washington Establishment as they want their past glory, pride and self esteem back and they hope Trump will provide that.” Shivangi is chair of the Mississippi Board of Mental Health, and also serves as president of the Indian American Forum for Political Education.
Dave Makkar, co-founder of Indian Americans for Trump, an organization formed in December 2015, said with Trump at the helm, the relationship with India will improve. “In the last two years Obama has given billions of dollars to Pakistan in defense aid. Not Trump. He is going to modernize the U.S. Army, not the Pakistani army.”
Makkar said he “hated” career politicians. “I was attracted to Trump’s plan that we will not be policemen of the world, not support regime change, and will not do nation-building,” Makkar said. He was also attracted to Trump’s view that NATO countries should pay the U.S. for the costs of providing a security umbrella, revising trade treaties and making countries like China lower barriers to American goods.
Both Parikh and Makkar criticized the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, one of President Obama’s signature legislations. “Repealing Obamacare will be good for healthcare industry and doctors because right now it gives more people coveage but that coverage is very pathetic and not good. But good aspects of Obamacare should be kept.”
Kumar said the Republican Hindu Coalition is “very proud” to present “a single, unified platform as a respected voice on policy issues, and that it is “a very inclusive group” patterned after the Republican Jewish Coalition. “A major part of our access has been through the RJC,” Kumar said. He was undecided on whether he would take a position in the new Trump administration if offered one.
“I would seriously have to think about that. I would aid in policy terms between the Trump Sarkar and the Modi Sarkar if I can add something in terms of policy enhancement.”
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