The Indian-American community established a major foothold within the Democratic Party with the creation of the Indo American Leadership Council. The Council, officially launched July 25, a day before the party’s convention in Boston, is one of six designed to channel funds to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from specific groups, including women, gays and lesbians, African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Pacific Americans.
If the Council raises $2.5 million in time for the presidential election in November – as mandated by the DNC – it will confirm the community’s status as a powerful force in the political system.
More significantly, it will offer Indian Americans an unprecedented level of access to the White House if Senator John Kerry wins, in terms of administration appointments and favorable policy.
While other groups have been formed to channel money from the community towards Kerry and other candidates, the Council’s benefit is its insider status, said Ramesh Kapur, chair of the Council and the sole Indian-American trustee of the Committee.
“Any funds raised around the country can be tallied,” said Kapur, a Massachusetts businessman. “We have no idea how much we have raised. We make guesses. Now, we’ll have an idea of who’s contributing to the Democratic Party.”
In addition to Kapur, the Council’s key leaders are Deven Verma, Vin Gupta, Niranjan Shah and Mahinde Tak, who have been meeting with the Committee on a weekly basis to discuss fundraising strategies. Ro Khanna, who ran and lost in the Democratic primaries against Congressman Tom Lantos of California, has been appointed executive director and works at the Committee office.
Eleven people have been appointed to raise $250,000 each; these include Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail, and political activist Swadesh Chatterjee.
Attainment of this goal ensures appointment as a Committee trustee.
The Council’s focus is to raise money from the wealthiest members of the Indian community. A number of donors have contributed the maximum of $25,0000, including Rajat Gupta of McKinsey Consulting and high-tech entrepreneur Kanwal Rekhi. According to an internal document obtained by India Abroad and circulated among potential donors, the amount guarantees membership in the Council and exclusive meetings with Kerry’s staff as well as a private fundraiser with Kerry.
The Council has not provided official figures on how much it has raised and estimates from individuals vary. One member acknowledged the $2.5 million figure was extremely ambitious, while the internal document acknowledged failure to live up to the objective would prove a harsh setback to the community’s relationship with the Democratic Party.
There is the possibility that Kerry may lose the election, in which case the Council’s momentum may be slowed considerably, said Talat Hasan, a Council trustee.
“I think we are fairly determined as a community that we don’t want to take a step back but continue to participate more actively in the party,” said Hasan, a Silicon Valley businesswoman and fundraiser. “Most of us feel like we need to be here for the long term. We want representation for our young people. We have to work closely with the party to ensure our candidates are given consideration. It’s all part of building a political base for our party.”
According to Deven Verma, a Kerry fundraiser and Silicon Valley venture capitalist who helped form the Council, it will help make Indian-American contributions five percent of the total contributions. He estimated, it stands at two percent now.
Varun Nikore, a member of the Indian American Leadership Initiative who has observed the formation of the Council from the outside, said the five percent figure was not unrealistic and noted that one estimate of community contributions, made by political consultant Kapil Sharma, amounted from $20 million to $25 million.
“If these numbers are true, it’s an awesome amount of money for a community that represents less than one percent of the population,” said Nikore. “It just shows our continuing and growing clout.”
He cautioned that the community had to “mature politically,” and figure out what its considerable contributions were going to buy, starting with White House appointments.
“There’s roughly 3,000 political appointments in the administration,” said Nikore. “If they say, ‘We want five percent,’ we should shoot for 60 appointees in the next administration.”
