The way we vote in Howard County - we dice more often than we decide

As I repeated several times in the past, social engineering plan of current administration didn't surprise me because last year, the same group of people led by Calvin Ball were pushing hard to pass the bill for making Howard county a sanctuary. In my estimate, that was even more insane and crazier idea. Our house price would have tanked in addition to dangerous consequence of increasing drug peddlers and prostitution. In fact even that time also political squabble of Howard County made national headlines. New York Times's Sabrina Tavernise made an exclusive story in which I was interviewed ( I am giving the link in the comment) and after that I received many emails from Indian community for venting out the hard feeling of the community against the career democrats who seem to care more about illegal immigrants than legal ones. Many of the fellow Indians are waiting for permanent residency in USA for a long long time ( sometimes more than 20 years for the Indians ) due to weird rule of country quota. Instead of pushing merit based immigration which would have helped both United States and legal immigrants, when Democrats were fighting for illegal immigrants, every Indian American thought enough is enough, and they were enraged. In every party , everyone would speak about how democratic party is failing them!

After Allan Kittleman stopped the sanctuary bill, he was very sure of winning against Calvin Ball. Even I thought so. After all who in their sane mind, will vote for Calvin Ball who tried to brink the Howard County into utter quagmire? I was so confident about victory of Allan, I said no, when his campaign team approached me for volunteering. In fact I told them, Alan will win so comfortably after this sanctuary episode, it will be easy cake walk!

When Calvin Ball won by a margin of more than 6000, I realized, I did a great mistake in understanding how politics works in Howard County. I can bait- all the enthusiastic members of this forum are thinking in next election, present administration will be voted out because of their unpopular redistricting plan. They will be totally surprised if election is held today. And that is why I am posting this piece so that everyone of this forum understands to defeat this insane administration, they need to be lot more organized and actively engaged in Howard county politics.

So how could Calvin Ball win after his crazy sanctuary fiasco ? In resolving the mystery we would know what to do next time. Fact is, I can bait even 20% of this forum members didn't know what role Ball played last year to push the county into political disaster.

Most of the immigrants, specially Asian immigrants voted for him in drove without even knowing what political ideology he stands for. Why did this happen? Why Allen didn't get the support from Indian and Asian community ?

This is where Calvin Ball excelled as politician. He really worked very hard to make himself known to immigrant community. I have seen him attending every Indian cultural event. He would be visiting them and distribute cards. He really worked very hard over the years among the immigrants to make his face known.

I met him first time in 2016 in a small party organized by local democrats to watch Hillary vs Bernie debate. He didn't take side but I still remember he came to me, introduced himself and gave his card. After that I saw him at every cultural event organized by different Indian communities. He maintained very good relationship with Indian community organizers. I can't recall any Democrat or Republican worked so hard to be known among the immigrants. You have to understand in Howard County for a long time, immigrants have voted based on whom they know personally and not politically. That's too most of the immigrants even didn't vote. Even my wife told me, since she doesn't know most of the local candidates she won't vote- she didn't like the idea of throwing dart. Most of us, including me faced the same limbo. I voted for Allan and some councilmen whom I knew to be good, but for the rest ( for majority of times indeed) I looked at who are Democratic candidates and I voted for them because I am a Dem card holder. Turn out for local election averaged around 40% and I can tell you most of the Indians, if voted followed the same tactics- when you don't know the candidates, vote for the Dem. So in first place, Republican candidates are not too keen to attend all the cultural events of the immigrants -they think, they will seek the vote politically. It doesn't work among the immigrants-they have to make their face known. And secondly, because of racially motivated comments of a handful republicans at national level, local GOP candidates are never favored among the immigrants. Specially if they are not personally known to the immigrants, by default immigrants would imagine them to be a white racist! I know most of them are not that type but because I met them and known them. Most of the immigrants are so aloof in politics, they will not bother or invest time to know them. Why blame others - even I am not exception to that rule. We all feel, US has given us such a nicer life compared to our country of birth, we will invest time to make even more money and someone else would work to safeguard my political interest!

Frankly I didn't know Allan Kittleman even last year. When I was so upset by sanctuary fiasco, I had to write to him regarding my concern. He wrote back that he would kill the bill. Then I traced back history of both Allan and Calvin. But you see had it not been for sanctuary county squabble, I wouldn't have known Allan and what a nice person he is. And I would have voted for Calvin Ball by default because Calvin Ball made several attempts to reach us. And we met in many functions! I can tell you most of the immigrants made the same mistakes.

So lesson learned. Along the logic and reason that prevailed in this group, it's duty of every member, specially immigrants to do couple of actions

  - Add your neighbors into this group 


  - Discuss the current mess and politicians involved in every party you are attending ..if possible give them some report to read 


     - Circulate the news of our resistance in all the relevant FB and whatsapp group , your wall..


    - Keep one or two banners in your lawn 
     


   

Politics requires more action to reach out, specially at community level when most of the voters are not so well informed. So please do reach out to as many members you can and as many ways you can. Your action to reach out to people will make bigger difference.

Howdy Modi- extravaganza of democracy, but is there anything for Indian Americans ?

Howdy Modi- extravaganza of democracy, but is there anything for Indian Americans ?

-          Biplab Pal, 9/22/2019

Indian Americans are one of the most successful and prosperous group on planet earth. Total net wealth of 4M Indian Americans will far exceed the wealth of 99% Indian back home. They played crucial role in IT revolution for both US and India. Today India has a $160B IT industry which feeds 12M middleclass.  This export owes its existence to Indian Americans who found an opportunity in outsourcing and together with Indian entrepreneurs laid the basics of business since 1990s.

I am not a spokesperson of Indian Americans as they are as diverse as they were in home in their political and personal aspiration. However, being a business person whose future and livelihood depends on $160B IT export and someone who regularly visits all the major cities of US and India I get to see the aspiration and frustration of both the countries first hand. As a US citizen, I am also active in local politics and for business in India, I happen to meet Indian politicians on regular basis. This gives me an wide perspective of how both the countries work. And more importantly what works and what doesn’t work in the largest and the most powerful democracy.  Therefore for an event where two of the premier of both the countries share same stage rooting for same future, definitely I should be delighted. But frankly I am not that optimistic because I do see that politicians of both the countries treat Indian Americans as holy cash-cow who would bring more business without giving us what we need to succeed. Yes, we are creating jobs in the both the countries, but it will be fair to say, politicians of US and India so far gave us a lip service. What we wanted, has never been listened or taken cared of adequately. Sadly that is the ground truth. And while both the leaders boosted of their success for their performance, I couldn’t find any clue how Trump or Modi would take initiatives that would help our Indian American community to create more business and jobs that both the leaders wanted.  

Let me start with criticism of Modi of what he has promised for NRI like us and what is the reality on ground in India. Even today he said, he would reform easy of doing business in India. It’s the same old cliché he promised five years back in his gala show in New York. What is the reality? Did you ever try to open a Pvt Company in India ? It takes enormous amount of time if one of the director is  a foreigner. Even if you are having an OCI card, it means nothing to ED ( Enforcement Directive). Next trouble starts with FDI or foreign direct investment. Normally whenever you wire a money for buying equity in Indian firms, that confirmation that you have personally done it must come from a class officer in your foreign bank which he has to communicate using SWIFT code ( Bank to bank secured communication). Else RBI will not accept. I have personally suffered two years of paper works because my banker even didn’t realize what to do! Even after they did it, still RBI said why that was not done in six month !   First of all, in USA, if an Indian invests, all they care about whether money has been wired. In India there is so much of bureaucracy even today, I would never invest in India had I not been Indian.  After I become US citizen in 2011, I found it is one of the worst place to do business as a foreigner. Compared to that, US is still a top destination for FDI because when we form a company in USA, we can do that online within 24 hours and I will have my business account in 48 hours. In India if there is a foreign director, it takes more than 3 months. Of course, even then you have to pay consultants who will “manage” it for you.

Then let’s look at the import to India. If you are in pure software, of course there can’t be any issue. In sensor business, where we regularly import from USA, including GST and import duty, we pay on average between 40-48% . On US side, on import from India, it was 6% earlier but since Indian administration didn’t listen to request from US commerce department for reduced tariff, it is now at 25%. On top of that, due to GST, it is costing us 18% more to produce in India. Overall, Indian import is 50% more expensive after Modi came to power. This has killed many Indian exporters already. It’s no wonder GDP growth in India has come down to 5% from 12%. It’s not a magic but a systematic failure of Modi administration to pay attention to details in the matter of economics. Instead they were more busy in their ideological politics like NRC or Kashmir to please their electorates.

 Amidst the charade and pomposity that has grappled the imagination of a Hindu nation,  Modi or his administration found no time to discuss with their US counterpart to do something so that bilateral trade improves.  On all of these matters, I must say, US administration has conducted more responsibly while they received lukewarm reciprocation from their Indian counterpart.

No wonder, foreign investors have lost confidence in Modi.

Now I will turn to criticism of Trump Government. H1-B visa is vital to this $160B Indian export.  I am also in favor of recruiting local software talents from USA but let face the bitter truth. Our US school system is outdated and they are not producing as many coders as we need.  Besides Indian middleclass does their job in IT because they have very little option of doing anything else that gives them decent salary. Many jobs in IT are so boring, most of the American kids don’t want to do it.  This being the case, we have no option but to get talented coders from India to USA. That process made America the capital of world IT- all most all software products and innovation still happen from USA. But if that is forcefully eliminated, how IT entrepreneurs would do well in a globally competitive market ? H1B visa rejection stands at 42%.  You want Indian Americans to create jobs in USA- but that is not possible without H1B program being reformed. We are all for local talents but even local talents would need grooming from experienced Indian software engineers.

I discussed only short-term issues. There are other long term  structural issues. We are entering into an age of AI driven automation. We need far more talented coders and software engineers than that we needed earlier. Indian school system is still based on old rots.  It has not been reformed.  It is producing BTech in engineering of whom 97% are unemployable.  Modi Govt took no step in reforming engineering education which is badly needed. No wonder, there is no Indian University within top 300.

We can all dance around hailing democracy and its celebration, but hard fact is China is surging ahead based on its vast public education system.  India has fallen far behind and US is also failing to catch up. China must be a wake-up call for all of us-both the nations. Our leaders must do better in public education system.

Buried in pomposity and paraphernalia of Howdy Modi, we the Indian Americans should not forget there are two critical factors that led to our success. We received very high quality public education in India almost free of cost- something that is being destroyed over last two decades by successive Indian Governments. I may be prejudiced but I have seen, talents always come from needy families. They shouldn’t be deprived of quality education or else even our outsourcing business will suffer. Second important thing that happened positively in our life is American capitalism which doesn’t discriminate based on color and embrace merit over color or race.  Sundar Pichai, had he been living in  India would not have dreamed of running an Indian business  empire which is always run by family dynasty. Therefore, if we understand why we succeeded in USA, we must have to protect the very value of American capitalism which is under threat from American socialists and white supremacists. We also have a duty to spread American capitalism and its positive dimensions in India.  India doesn’t have a capitalist infrastructure and Modi did very little to even recognize the issues other than lip servicing. To realize the great potential of India and its people, instead of adulating Modi, we need to constantly pressurize him for more reform of archaic business regulations so that with improved capitalist framework, India should dream of 15T economy and not 5T economy which I doubt they can achieve even in 10 years given such a poor capitalist framework. It’s a high time Modi should think of scrapping IAS, IFS, IPS etc. altogether and instead recruit experienced MBA professionals to run the country.

Having said all the negative sides, I must admit democracy is wonderful and it allows best talents to be the leaders.  They are intelligent people but more often than not, they take decision to please their vote bank. I hope things will change soon. So far so good, I am proud to be an Indian American-I consider myself very fortunate to be born in India and living in United States.