Think Pennsylvania Avenue is the seat of power in D.C.? Wrong. It’s K-street. Desi-Talk introduces us to Raj Mukherjee, a twenty year old lobbyist from Jersey who may end up there soon:
Most people would think for a 20-year-old being a lobbyist is an unusual career choice. Traditional choices for Indians have been engineering or medicine. But Raj Mukherjee doesn’t think it is so atypical. It is understandable considering since the age of 10 Mukherjee claims he has been making web sites to attract politicians. Today, he is a partner in the New Jersey-based lobby firm, Impact NJ, which is a full-service government affairs firm with an emphasis on lobbying in the Garden State.
Mukherjee told News India-Times that politics is a disease, “when it bites you can’t shake it away.†Initially his parents didn’t want him to do business or enter politics. “They wanted me to do school work. They believed in the power of academia,†he said.
Mukherjee is currently working with U.S. Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) on his campaign for governor. “I feel he can restore public trust. He is a good friend of India on the India caucus. In the Senate, he will work with Frank Pallone and Congressman Bob Menendez to represent the interests of Indian Americans in New Jersey, which has the largest Indian population in the U.S.†said Mukherjee.
Pretty impressive, right? Not everyone is going to be “elect-able,” especially at such a young age, but there are other ways to influence policy while he bides his time. Mukherjee already has an impressive resume.
He gained critical acclaim in N.J. political circles when at the age of 16, he became the vice chairman of the Publius Group (where he was previously director of technology & security), which owns and operates the state’s heavily trafficked political news source (PoliticsNJ.com), receiving approximately 4 million gross hits per month.
Mukherjee, who speaks four languages, joined the Marines at 17 two weeks after September 11. It is difficult to establish how long he spent time in the Marines considering he is an undergraduate student at Rutgers, majoring in counterintelligence. It is an inter-disciplinary major that combines political science, Middle Eastern studies and military studies.
Damn. Now I feel like I haven’t done enough today.
I did a Google search (yeah, I should be studying) and found his bio on his Impact NJ website: http://www.impactnj.com/raj.htm
Highlights: -performed on Broadway in A Christmas Carol -enrolled in college at the age of 15 -served as a Defense Intelligence specialist -worked as a real estate developer
He is quite the Jack of all trades. Cynical me wonders how long he has actually been involved with each of his activities.
Bangla Power y’all!
WEST Bangla Power y’all!
dang…can’t we all just get along? 😉
AND he’s been on an episode of Room Raiders?!?
How does he do it…
For being such an ambitious guy, you’d think he’d know that NJ is hardly the state “which has the largest Indian population in the U.S.” California has about 360k and New York has 296k. NJ has 181k.
http://www.iacfpa.org/press/districts_state.pdf
wonder if, despite his many successes, his mummy papa still nag him about straying from the career they had in mind for him? 😉
A.J., do you think he could have meant percentage-wise?
Forgive the nerd-ery, but I just wanted to point out the following stats from the website you cited AJ (2000 census numbers):
While there’s a lot in the article that seems a little far-fetched, he does have a point re: the Indian population in NJ.
i remember this kid. he spoke at a fundraiser in NYC and i met him after.. he was inspiring, u would never know hes so young except for his babyface (my girlfriend had a crush on him)
but the funny thing was he was so down-to-earth. he didnt want to talk shop or politics, he was mingling and so friendly and funny that ud never know who he was, except that we went to the parking lot with him and saw him get into a porsche 911
WEST Bangla Power y’all!
Ugh. Go visit Dhaka, talk to some street cart vendors in Manhattan, and otherwise get over yourself. To reiterate:
Bangla Power y’all!
By the way, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel about this guy. Should I be jealous (I am)? Admire his success (I reluctantly do)? Feel bad for him that he’s selling himself out to smarmy electoral politics when he maybe he could do so much more outside of it (I don’t know)?
Seems like an ambitious guy, good luck to him. He will undoubtedly be successful.
Now for someone who is amazing on a whole out-of-this-world level, there’s this other kid who scored a 1500 on his SAT’s…and he’s now getting his MD/PHD at U.Chicago.
Oh I forgot to mention, he was 8 when he did the SAT, and 12 when he entered med school.
Saying a state has the “largest Indian population in the U.S.” implies number, not percentage. While some might contend we’re getting into semantics, I think this is a VERY important distinction given the implications of the comment. If Rhode Island had a Yuba City-equivalent, should it be considered the state with the “largest Indian population?” While this is clearly a hyperbolic example, it still gets the point across. In any event, I mostly care about this because I’m from California and we are clearly the leaders in this category. 😉
A.J., I’m a Cali resident, so I feel you. But I also think there is a very important point to talking about a large Indian percentage in a state, especially if you’re talking about political action. Even if it was Rhode Island, I would say it would be a place where Indians should mobilize forces to have a voice, because it would likely be a lot louder than it would be in California.
I don’t disagree that wherever Indians form enough of a critical mass they should mobilize. I just take issue with his characterization of New Jersey as the hub of Indian American political activity. Part of it is due to the number issue, but let’s get real: there is no way you can compare Jersey to California on any level, including political activism among Indian Americans.
I’m from New Jersey. I don’t know him myself but Raj is supposedly quite a force around these parts but whoever wrote how friendly he is, there are some rumors – and they could just be rumors because like I said I’ve never met him – that he can have a temper. Do Indians need that kind of reputation? We are better off staying out of the political fray, it is beneath us
One of the stories is a prosecutor somewhere wouldnt do what he asked to get one of his friends off of some sort of charge so he got the prosecutor fired and then got his wife fired from a job at a law firm. There are many stories like this. but there are also stories that he is very helpful to people especially indians whenever they need a favor or are having a difficulty, a “Godfather” of sorts. Who knows?
I would like to see something on Dimple Gupta, she was recently hired by Spector to work on the “nuclear” option.
You got it Mike. Look for me to post on this question later tonight.
I saw him on Room Raiders. There was a hot Hispanic girl who liked him a lot, but he eliminated her based on her room, and he ended up picking a plain looking girl….so that’s at least one mistake he’s made!