Indian Govt. Rejects Devyani Khobragade’s Plea for Dual Citizenship for Her Children

August 4, 2015 Ajay GhoshCommunity, India, Politics 0

The Government of India has rejected IFS officer Devyani Khobragade’s plea seeking dual citizenship for her children, who are American nationals, saying Indian law does not allow this. Khobragade, who was India’s deputy consul-general in New York when she was arrested and charged with visa fraud, had recently approached the Home Ministry officials with the plea.

“We have conveyed to Khobragade that her children are not eligible for dual citizenship and hence her plea cannot be processed,” a senior Home Ministry official said. Her daughters were born in India but accepted U.S. citizenship as Khobragade’s husband is an American national. The IFS officer is accused of suppressing this fact to her employer, Ministry of External Affairs. The children held Indian passports, too.

After coming to know that Khobragade’s daughters held American passports, the MEA revoked the children’s Indian passports. She has challenged the decision in the Delhi High Court. The government took the action as dual citizenship is only applicable to those children who were born outside India. Khobragade’s daughters were born in Mumbai. Children of foreign diplomats, who are born in India, are given dual citizenship till the period of their parents’ service in India.

The government recently told the Delhi High Court that Khobragade obtained U.S. and Indian passports for her two daughters in violation of Indian law, without informing the MEA. This, it argued, raises serious questions about her “trustworthiness and integrity.” “Devyani Khobragade’s submission that the U.S. passports were only used for travel to U.S.A. does not in any way dilute the gravity and seriousness of her misdemeanor and are blatant violations of Indian Passports Act,” it said.

Ali Najmi Declares Candidacy For New York City Council

August 4, 2015 Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S. 0

Ali Najmi, a South Asian American, has declared his candidacy for New York City Council. Ali, a Democrat, is running to win from District 23, in this section of Queens — heavily populated by South Asian families, many of which have immigrated from India. It’s a tight-knit community, an ethnic enclave, and should Najmi win the race this fall, he will become the first elected official of South Asian descent in the history of New York City. The district’s seat became vacant this June after Councilman Mark Weprin resigned to take a position in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration.

Najmi — a 30-year-old defense attorney who previously served as Weprin’s legislative director and recently nabbed an endorsement from 2014 gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout — is hoping his résumé and strong ties to the community will help him win what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary in September. And in this community, being a South Asian kid from the neighborhood does indeed go a long way.

Ali Najmi said he is running for the City Council to make sure that all communities are respected and included in the City’s public holidays, and for this Diwali should be acknowledged as an important holiday

“I urge Mayor Bill de Blasio to demonstrate to our community the respect we deserve by adding Diwali to the public school holiday calendar. Hindu, Sikh, Jain, and Buddist communities should have their holiday recognized. It is right thing to do and it is the New York thing to do. New York has a wonderful tradition of adapting to the needs of new and growing communities. Let’s continue that tradition by adding Diwali to the school calendar,” he said July 13.

New York is home to well over 250,000 adherents to these faiths, and recognition of Diwali as a public school holiday will be an important acknowledgement of their countless contributions to this great city, the campaigners said last week.

“Ali Najmi will be a Council Member that fights for all communities to get the recognition that they deserve. We are proud to stand with him today to call on the Department of Education to recognize Diwali as a school holiday,” said Pam Kwatra, Founder and Chair of South Asian 4 Better Choice.

Ali Najmi, a defense attorney, was honored by the New Kings Democrats for his work as a community organizer. Ali has led successful efforts to increase funding for youth programs in his community and he has rallied to improve local public schools and expand library service.

He has worked closely with labor unions as the political director of the Alliance of South Asian American Labor (ASAAL) . Ali is a co-founder of the Muslim Democratic Club of New York and is the past president of the Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club.

India highest recipient of US economic assistance: USAID

August 2, 2015 Ajay GhoshBusiness, Finance/Economy, India, Politics 0

Washington, DC: India is tipped to be the second largest economy in the world with the GDP going to be second only to China by 2050. Today, it is the third largest economy in the world after the US and China. However, the US, the largest economy in the world today has been providing assistance to India more than any other nation in the world.

The US provided $65.1 billion as economic assistance to India between 1946 and 2012, according to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) statistics.

It was the highest among the economic assistance provided to 200 countries and regions by the US during the period. USAID is the lead US government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realise their potential.

The data, which was inflation adjusted, shows India received $65.1 billion in economic assistance, followed closely by Israel, which got $65 billion. Pakistan, which received a total of $44.4 billion from the US, was among the top five countries of the total 200 nations and regions getting the economic assistance.

Indian economic aid was spread over various sectors and programs, including child survival and health, development assistance, HIV/AIDS initiatives, migration and refugee assistance, food aid and narcotics control. Some $26 billion of the total aid was provided for various USAID programs.

In comparison, of the total economic assistance provided to Pakistan, $13.8 billion was given for USAID programs, while $13.7 billion was attributed to the Economic Support Fund and Security Support Assistance.

US committed to take partnership with India still higher: Joe Biden

August 2, 2015 Ajay GhoshFinance/Economy, India, Politics, U.S. 0

“We are committed to take this relationship further” for the well being of both the US and India as also for the advancement of the international community, Joe Biden said suggesting that the world was “at the cusp of another sea change decade.” To seize this “historic moment, Biden said “the US was pursuing a strategy of rebalancing to the Asia Pacific region” and “America’s deepening friendship with India is an indispensable part of our Asia rebalance strategy.”

“US-India partnership has reached a new level” under President Barack Obama, he said last week in keynote speech on the future of the US-India partnership to mark the tenth anniversary of the landmark India-US civil nuclear deal. The nuclear deal “removed the single largest irritant in the relationship between the two greatest democracies,” he said on the conclusion of a conference hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

“Together we transformed the bilateral relationship into a global partnership based on shared values, interests, responsibilities,” he said. “All of these will go to shape the next century if we stay the course. India’s Act East and US Rebalance in Asia is good news for the region as well as good news for the partnership,” he said.

The joint strategic vision for the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean region that Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had issued in January “serves as a beacon,” Biden said. “And every day we are working to try to make this vision a reality,” he said recalling that Obama had during his January visit to India had “declared that the US can be India’s best partner.”

“That’s our goal,” he said. “Change is taking place,” Biden said. “It’s a historic moment in the world, let’s seize it. We have a chance to bend history just a little bit,” he said. “This is one of those moments when our common interests are going to continue to converge and our countries have the potential to reach new heights.”

Earlier, addressing the Conference, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal recalled that “Ten years ago, access to nuclear, space, and other forms of high technology were among the most contentious issues between India and the United States.”

“Today those issues are part of the foundation on which we’re building a lasting partnership,” she said.

“In defence, the US is now India’s largest supplier, and we are launching new co-development and co-production projects that will expand our ties and advance Prime Minister Modi’s Make in India initiative,” she noted.

“Clearly, our relationship with the US has transformed rapidly in the last ten years to become a full-spectrum relationship, covering virtually all fields of human endeavour,” said the Indian ambassador Arun Singh.

“It is now embedded in the larger vision of a global strategic partnership,” he said asserting “that no relationship between India and another country can today match the range, depth, quality and intensity of the India-US partnership. Going forward, I see the US continuing to play a role in India’s transformation, and see India and the US joining hands to make the world a better place for our two nations and the rest of the world,” Singh said.

Nikki Haley For Vice President?

August 2, 2015 Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S., Women 0

There are rumors across the nation that the GOP is actively considering South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to be its vice presidential candidate after her handling of the June 17 Charleston shooting and its aftermath. Politicians and pundits alike applauded Haley, a 43-year-old Indian-American, for raising bipartisan support to take down the controversial Confederate flag from state grounds. Some predicted the buzz could carry over into a 2016 nomination.

David Beasley, the last Republican governor who took on the Confederate flag, which had fluttered in front of the 19th-century capitol building for 54 years, in 1996 “lost his job,” noted Politico, an influential Washington news site, but “Nikki Haley may get a promotion.”

“Her VP stock is probably on the rise again at the moment,” Republican analyst Ford O’Connell told the Hill, going on to say that she could appeal to young, female and minority voters — groups the GOP has historically had trouble capturing. “She could stop the bleeding of women to Hillary Clinton,” he added.

The move attracted praise immediately, but it also fed speculation about Haley’s future. Her term in South Carolina runs through January 2019, though many have wondered if she’ll cut her time short to run in 2016.

Haley herself has remained quiet on the issue. After winning re-election last year, she wrote a statement that “speculation is just that.” In 2013, at a campaign stop attended by GOP contenders Rick Perry, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal, she was more specific, telling reporters her campaign for governor didn’t mean “something national.”

“Haley’s decisive action to drive the final removal of the banner from statehouse grounds quickly and relatively cleanly in the glare of the national spotlight proved a well-timed audition for higher office ahead of the 2016 Republican veepstakes,” it suggested. “Nikki showed leadership in this instance, and she represents a new Republican face in the South,” strategist Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid, told Politico.

“Campaign 2016 has already devolved into theatre and absurdity,” wrote Doug Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee, in the Wall Street Journal but “Haley recently showed that politics and government can still live up to our best ideals.”

“Haley’s words, actions, poise, and determination-her courage-over the past month have helped her state heal,” he said noting “Speculation has increased about her potential as 2016 vice-presidential nominee.”

“Other state figures had faltered when confronting the legacy of the Confederate flag and pushing for its removal. But Haley’s quick call for it to be taken off has allowed her to bask in glowing reviews,” said CNN.

“The once-rising star, whose shine had faded after her 2010 gubernatorial victory, has emerged from the flag battle as the face of the ‘new South,’” it said. Shortly after the removal of the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds, Haley told CNN that placing the flag there in 2000 was a poor decision.

“I think the more important part is it should have never been there,” she said. “These grounds are a place that everybody should feel a part of. What I realized now more than ever is people were driving by and felt hurt and pain. No one should feel pain.”

Haley, the youngest current governor in the US and the first woman and the first Indian American to serve as Governor of South Carolina, had previously been a supporter of the flag as a symbol of Southern heritage honoring residents’ ancestors.

But it was after a week of funerals for the nine churchgoers who were gunned down by a white man in a historic black church in Charleston with the alleged intent of “starting a race war” that Haley said she decided that the flag had to come down.

“The biggest reason I asked for that flag to come down was I couldn’t look my children in the face and justify it staying there,” she was quoted as saying.

“Now there’s more reason to come to this state. I am proud to say that it’s a new day in South Carolina.”

Dinesh D’Souza ordered psych counseling

August 2, 2015 Ajay GhoshCommunity, Politics, U.S. 0

A New York Judge has ordered Dinesh D’Souza, an Indian-American conservative scribe and Obama critic filmmaker, to do community service for four more years for breaking campaign-finance laws and undergo further counselling.

Judge Richard Berman clarified on Monday July 13^th that under the sentence he handed down after D’Souza pleaded guilty last year, he has to do eight hours each week for the entire five years he’s on probation and not just the eight months he was confined to a halfway house.

The Manhattan federal court judge also read aloud a report from a court-appointed psychologist who called D’Souza “arrogant” and “intolerant of others’ feelings,” according to the New York Post.

“In my mind it was never contemplated that the eight hours only applied to the period of home confinement,” Berman was quoted as telling defence attorney Ben Brafman.

He later read out a report from a psychologist who saw D’Souza, the maker of the anti- Obama film “2016: Obama’s America”, and then ordered him to continue attending weekly sessions, the Post said.

“The client tends to deny problems and isn’t very introspective,” the psychiatrist wrote. “The client tends to deny problems and is arrogant and intolerant of others’ feelings.” But so long as D’Souza stays on track with his community service, he will be allowed to visit his daughter in London and his elderly mother in India later this year, Berman said.

D’Souza pleaded guilty last year to illegally shelling out $20,000 in contributions in the name of others for Republican Wendy Long’s failed 2012 bid to defeat Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

Asia Society Policy Institute To Work For India’s Membership in APEC

August 2, 2015 Ajay GhoshCommunity, Politics, U.S. 0

Despite having a population of 1.2 billion and the world’s ninth largest economy, India remains excluded from several regional economic organizations like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) — a situation experts say is detrimental to both India and the international community.

India’s economy is only partly integrated into the global economy, particularly regional trade arrangements in a dynamic Asia-Pacific. The emergence of regional trade agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) threatens to further distance India from the global supply chains critical to Prime Minister Modi’s “Make in India” initiative.

Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) has convened a high-level, international task force to develop a strategy for India’s membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. To be chaired by Kevin Rudd, ASPI will develop the case for India’s membership in APEC, identify the benefits and obstacles to it, and seek to generate support for India’s membership in India and among APEC members.

Rudd served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister and as Foreign Minister. As Chair of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism, Rudd is leading a review of the UN system.

Ajay Banga, co-chair of ASPI, is President and Chief Executive Officer of MasterCard and a member of its board of directors. He serves as a member of President Obama’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Amb. Shyam Saran, another co-chair of ASPI, was Foreign Secretary of India from 2004 to 2006 and currently serves as Chairman for the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a think tank specializing in studies on economic and trade issues.

The task force will include members from India, the United States, and key APEC member economies from Asia. ASPI will share a report of the task force with the Government of India, APEC member economies, and business communities in all those economies in early 2016. The Confederation of Indian Industry is partnering with ASPI on this initiative.

Rudd noted that India’s delayed entry is as much about the negotiation process as internal economic issues. “The dynamic of any negotiating room at the top is always in the direction delay, it is rarely in the direction of decision,” Rudd said. “There are two things that are eternal: the kingdom of heaven and the bureaucracies of our various countries.”

“Business globally, and especially in the U.S., should be delighted by the prospect of India joining APEC,” said Banga. “An India that’s much more open, much more aligned with the trade protocols and practices of APEC members, is an India that is way better positioned for integration into global supply chains.”

Shyam Saran, one of several panelists appearing via Skype, emphasized that his country realizes the importance of international economic associations. “Let me say very categorically that India is very keenly interested in becoming part of APEC,” he said, adding that the country has in fact applied in the past but was stopped by a moratorium on new members.

Panelists pointed out that some member countries remain skeptical of India’s ability to conform to APEC trade norms and culture. “The U.S. reluctance to embrace India into APEC for these many years has been a fear that India would slow down the process of moving toward greater trade facilitation and liberalization,” Fred Bergsten, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said. “India, along with some other countries, has sometimes caused problems for global trade negotiations.”

Bergsten added that if India were to join APEC, it could pave the way to membership in the even more exclusive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Being part of an organization like this, according to Peterson Institute estimates, could expand India’s exports by as much as $500 billion per year by 2025.

Sunil Kant Munjal, joint managing director and chairman of Hero MindMine Institute Ltd., said that it’s hard for India to institute the needed reforms as quickly as countries like China did. “There’s literally not one other large economy in the world that has given civil liberties first and has tried to turn itself into a market economy and a global market economy,” he said. “It is a fairly unique experiment in that sense, so some of the things have been slower than we’d like, but it’s also because of the complex and extremely diverse society that we have in India.”

India’s entry into the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), which accounts for nearly 60 percent of global GDP, would provide a pathway for greater integration into the region’s economy. It would also ensure that trade remains a unifying force in the region, where competing trade regimes are straining ties.

Category: Politics