Small OpEd in the Econ Times – Desi Americans against outsourcings –

…recently, when the Chairman of the Indian-American Republican Council, criticised the Senate Democratic leader Senator, Tom Daschle for telling his constituents that six million jobs will be outsourced to India, R Vijayanagar said that these statements are nothing but cheap rhetoric. Claiming that yet another Democrat has used India as a scapegoat to score political points in a desperate attempt to win an election, he said the Indian-American community was affected by such Xenophobia. But are their fears genuine?

Although the Republican Congressional candidate from Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District , Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, has the seat pretty much locked up accoriding to most experts, it isn’t stopping some of his five rivals from going after him. What do they have to say? From the Times-Picayune:

“I can’t imagine that someone who’s more to the extreme on some issues will be able to get bipartisan support for some of the needs Louisiana has, like coastal erosion,” [Dan] Zimmerman said, referring to Jindal’s conservative positions.

Opponents of Jindal include,

Roy Armstrong, an officer in Duke’s European-American Unity and Rights Organization; Vinny Mendoza, a retired Air Force officer; Mike Rogers, a health care consultant; Jerry Watts, a retired orthopedic surgeon; and Daniel Zimmerman, a computer technician.

Apparently even existing Congress members are so sure of Jindal’s victory that they are already recruiting him for the House’s Energy Committee even before he’s been elected. From The Hill:

Six weeks before Louisiana voters decide if they want Bobby Jindal to become a member of the House, Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.) is already lobbying Republican leaders to put the former Bush administration official on a top congressional committee.

It is rare for a freshman lawmaker to be appointed to an “A” House committee, such as Appropriations, Ways and Means, or Energy and Commerce. But because of his extensive background in healthcare and the broad perception that the Indian-American is a rising star in the party, Jindal may be an exception to the rule.

I could be wrong but I would guess that a fair amount of Indians who are U.S. citizens are moving back to India in their retirement (anyone have any numbers for me). Social Security checks alone (which according to my previous entry, we don’t collect as often as we should) would allow you to live a fairly comfortable life in India. Many of my relatives who have lived in this country for over 30 years, are doing just this sort of thing. My point is that there is probably going to be an increasing number of U.S. citizens living in India. Perhaps with this new trend in mind, two U.S. citizens, Sumana Brahman, who is of Indian origin, and Patti Madigan, along with some other volunteers, have started the India chapter of Democrats Abroad, which targets expatriates and encourages them to vote. As reported by the Economic Times:

They have a simple message for Americans residing here — “every vote counts”. “Look at what happened during the ’00 presidential elections. Things went to the wire and in states like Florida, the absentee ballots decided the fate of the candidates,” Ms Brahman, who has been working as a consultant in India for some time, said.

There are 7m American expatriates worldwide, who are eligible to vote. “The number is more than in some US states,” she says.

However, Ms Brahman dispels notions that the group is a supporter of the Democratic party as its name may suggest. “We are just private citizens. While we do support the Kerry campaign personally, our target now is to enlist as many people as possible without consideration of their party affiliations,” she says.

SAKI2004 (South Asians for Kerry in 2004) are putting on a gala event to raise money for the Kerry Campaign on October 6th in NY. They have already signed up DJ Rekha, Kal Penn, and the cast of Bombay Dreams. We can safely assume that they are all Kerry supporters. Interestingly the proceeds from this fundraiser are going straight to the battleground state of Florida. Nice strategery.

SAKI also has some other good stuff going on this Thursday if you are in D.C. (I can only wish). They are holding a South Asian Presidental Debate in the CNN Crossfire Room at the George Washinton University campus. Sigh. One day I hope to be the brown James Carville and host Crossfire. When I am bald of course.

As the elections draw near, candidates continue to reach out to the South Asian vote. Illinois Senate hopeful Barack Obama recently met with a group of South Asian American community and business leaders at a fundraising dinner held at the home of physician Vipul Aurora as reported by NewKerala.com:

…the Senate hopeful who has become a political star after his speech at the Democratic convention, says South Asian Americans and “we share the same values”.

“We are in a good position, thanks to the support from the South Asian community,” he said adding, “We share the same set of values.”

“We have made tremendous strides politically in the last 18 months,” he said. “There was a time when many people said, ‘He (Obama) has no organisation, no money and we cannot even pronounce his name’.”

Of course as you can imagine, many of the doctors at the gathering expressed hopes that Obama would focus on the problems of medical malpractice insurance if elected. Will he oblige them? Continue reading →

Jagdish Bhagwati is a sterling economist whose work I’ve run into several times over the years. Some say he’s a contender for the next Desi Nobel Prize in Econ. Perhaps.

A compendium of some of his work can be found in his recent book In Defense of Globalization.

Daniel Drezner has a couple of excerpts from WSJ and interviews with Prof. Bhagwati up on his blog today – Daniel W. Drezner :: Jagdish Bhagwati –

If we look at the offshoring of online services like call centers or basic accounting, we’re talking about a maximum loss of 100.000 jobs a year to countries like India. That is nothing for an economy this size. The US is a major hyperpower, and yet every time it gets into competition with Mexico, China and India, we work ourselves into a panic. It’s like a rottweiler getting scared because a French poodle is coming down the road.

Read it all…