Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton promised on Saturday, July 10, 2015 to fight for a fairer society for ordinary Americans, staking out a place on the left to cut off any budding challenge for the Democratic nomination. In the first major rally of her campaign for the November 2016 presidential election, Clinton touched on many of the issues that energize liberal Democrats. She highlighted her support for gay marriage, women’s rights, income equality, clean energy and regulating Wall Street.
Speaking on New York’s Roosevelt Island, with Manhattan’s skyscrapers as a backdrop, Clinton promised to “make the economy work for everyday Americans, not just those at the top” if elected president. The former secretary of state praised working families for leading America’s economic recovery after the financial crisis of 2008. “You brought our country back. Now it’s time – your time to secure the gains and move ahead,” she told a crowd of several thousand supporters.
Meanwhile, the fast growing and powerful Indian-Americans are staking their claim as early supporters of the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for the presidential race of 2016. At a recent fundraiser, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a low-key stop at a gathering of high-profile Indians. No media was allowed at the event where attendees paid $2,700 per plate for some face time with the former First Lady.
The fundraiser, hosted at the home of art collector and retired U.S. Army Colonel Dr. Mahinder Tak and her husband businessman Sharad Tak, was attended by nearly 100 people during which, $300,000 was raised, Tak told the media. Clinton touched on all her pet projects and interests but also more. “She talked about the current state of the U.S. economy, relations with India, praised (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and his successful trip to the U.S., women’s rights and children’s rights, and increased drug use in the population, including among youth,” Tak said.
Among those present were businessman Sanju Bansal, co-founder of MicroStrategy, a worldwide provider of enterprise software who is now CEO of the Virginia-based data analytics company, Hunch Analytics, founded by President Obama’s first Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra. Chopra was represented by his wife Rohini Dhir. Parag Mehta, former LGBT liaison on the Obama-Biden transition team, former director of communications and also director of training at the Democratic National Committee and special assistant to the Secretary, Department of Labor, was there; IT entrepreneurs Payal and Chandra Tak, Sudhakar Keshavan, chairman and CEO of the publicly traded management consultancy IFC International which posted gross revenues of $949 million in 2013; businesswoman Devinder Singh; Arun Gupta, partner at the venture capital firm Columbia Capital; and Shekar Narasimhan, DNCs co-chair of the Indo-American Council and managing partner at Beekman Advisors, and several other heavy hitters. Former U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, also showed up.
“She’s the most experienced of all the those running, man or woman, Republican or Democrat,” Tak said. “She’s a household name all over the world. And at the White House she put ‘women’s rights are human rights’ on the map,” she added.