Do Indians in America all vote for the Democratic Party? Will they all do so only if an Indian politician they trust certifies the candidates? And only if the politician belongs to the Janata parivar?
In January, when it seemed Hillary Clinton‘s star was on the ascendant, newspapers were deliriously reporting that Clinton’s campaign managers had approached Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and former minister of state for external affairs Digvijay Singh to canvass for the former first lady among Indians settled in the United States.
Kumar said: “We support the Democratic Party presidential nominee.”
“We have all sympathy for the party,” Singh added helpfully.
Well, the epidemic is spreading.
P.G.R. Sindhia, the former Janata Dal minister in Karnataka who left the party to join the Bahujan Samaj Party only to be summarily expelled by Mayawati last week, has announced that he is going to the United States to campaign for the Democratic Party nominee, Barack Obama.
The Hindu reports that “as he was a fan of the Democratic Party, he had informed the party in advance that he would campaign for Obama.”
Sindhia will be addressing meetings of the Indian community in the US for two weeks during July and August to seek votes for Obama. His itinerary will be finalised in a couple of days, please note.
Photographs: Nitish Kumar courtesy UNI via rediff.com, Digvijay Singh courtesy The Tribune, Sindhia courtesy Karnataka Photo News
Pls pls share the itinerary of Sindhia as and when it is ‘finalized’ :)
There is a saying in Kannada ” Atta hardedhu baddi, betta haaridhnanthe”..loosely translated it means a guy who could not jump over the attic is fancying jumping a mountain
this i think sums up Sindhia’s effort who could not win his own seat not to speak about the party he hopped on to..
By the way, does anybody know if the services of Indian politicians were sought in the first place ?
Thats indeed Pandurangarao Ganapathrao Sindhia
Sindhia’s megalomania and delusion of grandeur seem to be assuming alarming empidemic proportion. Like Chikungunya…
He had the habit of telling everyone who met him that but for my caste, he would have been an ex-chief minister of Karnataka by now. To be fair to him, this cannot be dismissed as mere blabber. My sympathies but…
The Press Club rumour had it that recently, on the eve of the elections, he refused to give an interview to the principal correspondent of a national newspaper on the ground that the correspondent was too junior to interview a ‘super senior leader’ like him. ‘Your chief reporter interviews Siddaramaiah, why am I being interviewed by you?’ the Maratha leader asked.
The man had no guts to face D K Shivakumar. So, he conveniently said he had it all in the state politics and now he set his eyes on Delhi and he wanted young leaders to to the Assembly. The crux of the matter was that he was nervous when D K Shi decided contest from Kanakapura. If only he had contested he would have been a hero, no matter what the result was but that is possible only if one is a leader.
During the J H Patel’s regime, for no known reason, Sindhia saab one day gave a statement that ‘it is too suffocating in JD.’ One would have expected Patel who was already facing enough trouble from Deve-Gowda sponsored elements in the party under the leadership of Siddaramaiah to appease Sindhia but Patel (after all he was a leader made of sterner stuff) quelled Sindhia’s ‘rebellion’ with a single statement: ‘Those who feel suffocated can go in search of fresh air.’ NO one heard a word from Sindhia thereafter. It was Patel’s magnanimity that he gave Sindhia the Home Department later despite such tantrums.
True one should give credit to Sindhia that he was able to win the Vokkaliga dominated Kanakapura constitutency for five or six successive terms though he belonged to a minority ‘backward'(?) caste. That is his only achievement. One may add to it the fact that he had managed the portfolios given to him reasonably well. But he seems to be leader out of fluke rather than of substance. He suffers from a strange inferiority complex, has no personal ideology. He claims he is a backward leader but he is feudal to the core in his behaviour. Sindhia would go to any extent to please the people if he sees use in them. He said he was secular by disassociating himself from JD after it went to marry BJP. May be he felt it was below his status to work under ‘junior’ Gowda but now, having been humiliated by Mayavathi, he says ‘he regrets his decision to quit the Janata Parivar.’
Now..ella bitta maga bhangi netta. Having failed to influence the voters in the constituency that he nurtured for decades (his erstwhile party candidate lost deposit in Kanakapura) he seeks to influence voters in the US. Let him try to have a Green Card and stay there for ever….Good riddance
PGRS statement should qualify for the best Joke of the 21 st century.
Just reflects how shameless the politicians are.
If anyone is hiring Sindhia to “campaign” for Obama, it will be supporters of McCain!
Looks like Sindhia is suffering from early signs of dementia.
Obama will be fortunate enough to learn how to practice corruption openly and not be caught.
Sindhia will also become the jagadguru of the Kannada Maratha Samsthana in the U. S.
fantastic headline!
I wonder how it would look like if Obama came to India and campaigned for any of our netas.
Our netas would prefer a white guy to campaign for them.
dear Pulakeshi the last :
dayavittu marathara hesaru kedesabedappa. adhikaradllidasshtu kala maratha janarinda doora iddvanuu kannappa sindhya. Sindhya was near to only affluent marathas like Jagadale family ,Sharad pawar family.He has distanced himself from common marathas since 1983. He used to say only vokkligas has helped him,no marathas.
See in life you reep what you sow.thats what has happened to him.
I Do not think he has gone to US for canvassing to obama, He must be staying with his son , whom he had removed from his family earlier for marrying a muslim girl of Arab background.
If Obama reading this blog, I suggest he invite Devegowda to campaign for him!
Bengaluru Raja–
That was a lighthearted comment since Sindhia almost always shows up at those functions attended by Sureshvaraananda Swamy, the Khodays, Pawar, etc.
I apologise to you for hurting your sentiments.
Oops! I blew my own cover.
Dear mr.Jathibrashta,
No problem i have taken your pun in my stride. But i would like to clarify ” Going to swamiji’s is not the yard stick for measuring how one is attached to his community.See this Sureshwarananda swamiji is the diciple of balagangadhara swamiji and on recommenadations of BGswamiji, SSwamiji is annoited as maratha’s guru. see the connection, how pleasing BGswamiji by Sindhya has helped him controlling over vokkliga votes in kaankapura. He attends functions only when his interest are there. Ask him how manu functions he has attended of KKMP the frontal body Marathas ,he is always at logger heads with persons controlling KKMP as they donot dance to his tunes. when Senior Lad was in janatal dal ( when Anil lad & Santhosh lad were not in lime light not they were rich then ) how much when they wanted help in fighting against Ghorpades of congress how much sindhya has helped NIL. He always sides with RICh marathas.
One more thing , one my friend tells me ( I cannot confirm it ) that He wanted to built a kalyana mantapa in his mother’s name in his native village since last 10 years and the site for that has been donated by a Trust .He is always postpong it after promising since last 10 yeras and now his Brother -in -law who ahs been made a secretary for that trust has started collecting donations to build the kalyana mantapa. Fun you know.They may even request Kumaraswamy to release some funda towards this as this is in Ramanagaram constituency.
All right, Raja. What do your people plan to show Sindhia where he belongs? No matter what, he is as rich as Deshpande. Nothing is going to affect him for the rest of his life, unless Devegowda performs a real hot Yajna to get the gods to destroy him. Y. S. V. Datta will be there as the dharbe boy.
why u need Devegowda for that ! He himself is enough to destroy himself.Now the only Option left for him to Move towards Congress , he has DKS at his side ( in fact all sindhya supporters canvassed for DKS in last election ) he may contest loksabha polls on congress ticket.DKS can also keep tejaswini at a distance.
I am so surprised to read this blog. I can’t belive that you guys have so much information about PGR Sindhia. Some of the negative comments made are true like the ones that he has not done much to the maratha community to which he belongs. I personally don’t care which Indian politician would come and campaign here in USA as it hardly makes any effect. Remember we Indians here are called “Confused Desis” by people in India.
About PGR, he has quite a lot of pros and cons going into his political history. Firstly, there is not even one single maratha person (even other non-native comuunity person) who has been able to win sine 1983 from any south karnataka constituency. Sindhia has won even when he was with Hegde and Gowda campaigned against me and belive me it is not easy to defeate Deve Gowda in gowda hearland by a maratha. Politics is such a game that you can never predict things. Look what happenned to legends like Ramakrishna Hedge and now Advani. He was a great transport minister who brought lot of changes in the department and for the first time he made the department into profit making corporation in the history of karnataka. If you ask me isn’t he corrupt then I would say he very well is. You got to compare apples with apples so compare him to a politician.
He has won kanakapura on his merits. He has done lot of work and he has defeated stalwarts from Gowda community in Kanakapura. He relaxed and couldn’t maintain his organizational hold and the breakups in JD has brought him to where he is now.
About all the statement made by him: Just check your history and the statements you have made to your friends, boss, parents. Yours don’t get published and the politican’s comments gets noted and investigated. The information about the Kalayana mantapa is correct but no funds has been collected for construction. I know the community in that area and believe me it is not easy to build something for maratha community as the main community there will be so jealous and makes it political. This is how corrupt the people are in India. Lot of community politics. I condem the people who have written in the blog that he has not done anything to Marathas. He did what is right for his constiruency and as a minister to general public. I am a maratha and I dont want somebody to do me a favor based on my caste. You guys are corrupt in asking help because of caste. Well I am not saying that Sindhia is not corrupt as he plays politics to appease Gowda community but dont ask help from him based on caste. Did he get elected because of maratha support?
To summarize compare apples with apples and remember politicians are scoundrels. I know I respect Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh but they didnt change a bit in the character of politics by making legislations, even after being PM. They are seeing corrupt ministers in their own eyes and dis-regarding it instead of revolting and making changes. I know they are helpless but if people with that fame can’t lead a revolt then who will?