Washington: Asserting that he didn’t believe in hyphenated identities, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has said that his parents came to the US from India four decades ago to become Americans and not Indian-Americans.
He invoked his ethnic heritage to make a call for immigrant assimilation and called people who talked about skin pigmentation as the “most dim-witted lot” around.
“My parents came in search of the American Dream, and they caught it. To them, America was not so much a place, it was an idea. My dad and mom told my brother and me that we came to America to be Americans. Not Indian-Americans, simply Americans,” Jindal said in a prepared remarks that he is scheduled to deliver next week.
Jindal, the first Indian-American governor of any American state, is scheduled to address the Henry Jackson Society on Monday in London.
Releasing the prepared remarks of Jindal’s speech, his office said the Louisiana Governor will call for immigrant assimilation to strengthen countries and protect freedom.
“If we wanted to be Indians, we would have stayed in India. It’s not that they are embarrassed to be from India, they love India. But they came to America because they were looking for greater opportunity and freedom,” Jindal said, explaining the reason why he does not like to be called or described as an Indian-American.
“I do not believe in hyphenated Americans. This view gets me into some trouble with the media back home. They like to refer to Indian-Americans, Irish-Americans, African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and all the rest. To be clear – I am not suggesting for one second that people should be shy or embarrassed about their ethnic heritage,” he said.
“I am explicitly saying that it is completely reasonable for nations to discriminate between allowing people into their country who want to embrace their culture, or allowing people into their country who want to destroy their culture, or establish a separate culture within,” he said.
“It is completely reasonable and even necessary for a sovereign nation to discriminate between people who want to join them and people who want to divide them. And immigration policy should have nothing at all to do with the colour of anyone’s skin. I find people who care about skin pigmentation to be the most dim-witted lot around. I want nothing to do with that,” he said.
Jindal said his objective in this speech is to speak clearly about what he believes to be America’s proper role in international affairs; to speak bluntly about the nature of the threats being faced and the recent tragic events in France; and to suggest what he think is the way forward.
Bobby Jindal’s only connection to Punjab — an electricity bill!
A humble electricity bill – that is the only connection that two-time Louisiana governor and contender for the US presidency Bobby Jindal’s family has with their ancestral home in Punjab’s Khanpur village.
Nothing of the family survives in this Sangrur village as Amarchand Jindal, the governor’s father, had migrated to the US about half a century back. The Jindals’ home too has been substantially altered by its current owners, but they have kept the electricity bill in the name of Madan Lal Jindal, Bobby’s grandfather.
The grandfather ran a small grocery store in Khanpur and Amarchand would man it once in a while till he was there. Madal Lal died around 30 years ago after he shifted to nearby Malerkotla town in the 1980s with the rest of the family.
The Khanpur house was built on a 400-square-yard plot and was divided among four brothers. “We purchased this house in 1992 and altered it according our needs and convenience,” says small-time businessman Bhupinder Singh, showing receipt of power bill with Madan Lal’s name on it.
“We never felt need to change ownership of electricity connection. We happily pay the bill every two months. There is no reason why we did not change the name. We just did not feel the need to. Moreover, nobody has asked us to,” Bhupinder adds. The family gets a bill of around Rs 2,000 each time, but the last bill was of just Rs 1,050.
Village elder and retired teacher Ujjagar Singh, 75, who studied with Bobby’s father at Malerkotla before attending an engineering college with him, said that while Bobby’s father migrated to US after getting an engineering degree, his three brothers – Sham Lal, Bachan Lal and Dharam Pal – migrated to nearby Malerkotla with their father. His five sisters were married in different villages of Sangrur of whom only two are alive today.
So, while Bobby Jindal fights to become the most powerful man in the world, his ancestor will keep powering up a house in Khanpur.
