The official Republican Party response in the US to the State of the Union annual address of the US President is tasked to someone perceived as a rising star in the party. This year, it had added significance as it happened to be President Barack Obama’s last one. The honour, which often makes or breaks political reputations, fell upon Nimrata (Nikki) Randhawa Haley, the incumbent governor of South Carolina. She stirred a hornets’ nest by positioning herself between the frontrunners in the Republican Party presidential race — who have wandered way to the right of the political spectrum — and their trailing partymen, as indeed the Democrats. What made the issue even more piquant was that Ms Haley is of Indian origin.
Referring to the “rich and complicated” history of the US, she demanded a return to its foundations. Relating her own journey as the child of immigrants who taught her self-help, she pronounced that “no one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.” This was clearly aimed at, as she later was not reluctant to confirm, Donald Trump whose intemperate remarks on putting a halt to Muslim immigration till better systems evolve have been playing to the worst and atavistic instincts of the White majority. She added insult to injury, saying you do not have “to be the loudest voice in the room” to make a difference.
The reaction of the Trump bandwagon was prompt. Social and political commentator Ann Coulter tweeted that Mr Trump needed to deport her back to India. This was reminiscent of some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders during the Bihar election suggesting deporting anti-Modi voters to Pakistan. The rising support for the populist right in Europe made the Economist weekly call it as unparalleled since the Second World War and a “serious threat to the openness and tolerance that Western societies take for granted”. In France, the home of libertarianism, after the twin terror attacks last year, the acquisition of Emergency powers by the state and the rise of the far-right National Front of Marine Le Pen are sounding warning bells that liberal ideals may be under threat.
There is talk of terrorists with dual nationality, even if born in France, being stripped of their French nationality. In a sense, the forces of radical Islam, in the form of Al Qaeda earlier and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria now, may have already taken their toll by bending public and political discourse to populist prejudices.
Mr Trump’s support is a mere third of the 25 per cent of the US population registered as Republican voters. Ms Haley’s courage in holding the mirror to them is laudable. She promptly received the endorsement of trailing candidates like Jeb Bush and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Interestingly, she is hardly the paragon of liberal ideals. She joined other Republican governors in refusing to take a single Syrian refugee into her state. But she has been known — like when courageously taking down the Confederate flag in her state after the killings in a predominantly black church by a White supremacist — that her instincts are for American values, albeit with Republican characteristics.
As the voice of sanity and balance in her party, Ms Haley is now positioned to be on any short-list of vice-presidential running mates if the presidential candidate is other than Mr Trump or Ted Cruz, particularly if Hillary Clinton gets the Democratic nomination. Ms Haley is an obvious counter-weight to the anti-immigrant perception of the Republican Party and with the demographic rise of Hispanics and Asians a consolidation of the White vote alone, supported by big money, is hardly a formula for electoral success. It can, as one columnist wrote, either save the Republican Party or kill conservatism.
Ms Haley’s gambit raises pertinent issues for India and the Indian diaspora. One, her past relationship to India is in sharp contrast to that of Bobby Jindal, another governor of Indian origin. Both happen to be of Punjabi origin, the former from a Randhawa Jat Sikh family and the latter a Hindu. Both converted to Christianity, perhaps a condition precedent to US politics, but while Ms Haley never rejected her Sikh roots, even paying obeisance at the Golden Temple last year on a visit to Punjab, Mr Jindal played truant even during the Modi outreach to the diaspora in the US. Two, why cannot politicians in India, often chafing at leadership miscues or misdirection, stand up and say the obvious Contrariwise, had someone played Ms Haley in India by now a show-cause notice would have been delivered for anti-party activities.
Three, the BJP needs to imbibe, as Ms Haley warned her partymen, that “it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest”, but, as Bihar demonstrated, the people punish bigotry gone astray.
The reason for the Indian malaise is straightforward. In the US, the primary system throws up leaders who argue and wrestle their way to the nomination. Ms Haley became governor riding the Tea Party movement that levelled the traditional Republican Party machine, not because “high command” or the Politburo or some family conclave blessed her. Although prominent Indian Republican diaspora voices condemned extreme reaction to the Nikki fusillade, the bulk are still confused over the faith choice of the two Indian-origin governors. These are perhaps dilemmas of first-generation immigrants still trying to reconcile issues of assimilation and identity. Ms Haley proudly shows she is way past that point, which should make all Indians proud. The writer is a former secretary in the external affairs ministry. He tweets at @ambkcsingh
