{"id":53921,"date":"2017-05-14T22:41:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T22:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=53921"},"modified":"2017-05-14T22:46:02","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T22:46:02","slug":"samosa-caucus-indian-americans-in-us%e2%80%89congress-are-emerging-as-a-power-bloc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=53921","title":{"rendered":"Samosa Caucus: Indian Americans in US\u2009Congress are emerging as a power bloc"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/world-news\/samosa-caucus-the-new-indian-american-network-in-washington\/story-cjag2HrrU4XVuhJhbpxcfI.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>Samosa Caucus: Indian Americans in US\u2009Congress are emerging as a power bloc<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hindustan Times<\/a><br \/>\nNew Delhi, India<br \/>\n2017-05-14<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yashwantraj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Yashwant Raj<\/strong><\/a>, U.S. Correspondent<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"552\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/world-news\/samosa-caucus-the-new-indian-american-network-in-washington\/story-cjag2HrrU4XVuhJhbpxcfI.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/rf\/image_size_960x540\/HT\/p2\/2017\/05\/13\/Pictures\/_05e8e652-37e0-11e7-b30b-76e7402dac55.jpg\" width=\"550\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<small>Potentially presidential: Congresswoman <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kamala_Harris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kamala Harris<\/a>. (File photo)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><em>A new power bloc rises in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">US<\/a>. Can an <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Indian_Americans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Indian American<\/a> some day be president of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">United States<\/a>?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As the young Congressman peered intently at the faces of Indian Americans around him in a small, crowded hall inside the Indian embassy in downtown <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Washington,_D.C.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DC<\/a>, he felt a rush of emotion; he felt beholden to them. \u201cI stand on your shoulders to be in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States_Congress\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">United States Congress<\/a>,\u201d he said, tapping the podium, as was his habit, with his pen. \u201cPlease visit me in our office; my office is your office, and anything you need on any issue, you come to us and we will help you. Pramila, me, Ami, Ro and everyone else \u2013 we are at your service.\u201d He calls them the \u201cSamosa Caucus\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>That was <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Raja_Krishnamoorthi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Raja Krishnamurthi<\/a>, one of five Indian Americans elected to the US Congress that started its 115th two-year term in 2017. The three he mentioned by their first names were <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pramila_Jayapal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pramila Jayapal<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ami_Bera\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ami Bera<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ro_Khanna\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ro Khanna<\/a> \u2013 all elected to the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States_House_of_Representatives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">House of Representatives<\/a> \u2013 and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kamala_Harris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kamala Harris<\/a>, the one he missed, is the fifth of the group and the first American of Indian descent elected to the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States_Senate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Senate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>They are all Democrats, relatively young \u2013 with Bera, Harris and Jayapal the oldest, at 51 \u2013 and brimming with hope, plans and ambition. They made history in the past election by winning in record numbers. They are now caucusing as a group in the US legislature in the tradition of India Caucus, the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Congressional_Black_Caucus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Black Caucus<\/a> and various other groupings, which, however, are officially recognised as such.<\/p>\n<p>The Samosa Caucus is not there yet, but a beginning has been made&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/world-news\/samosa-caucus-the-new-indian-american-network-in-washington\/story-cjag2HrrU4XVuhJhbpxcfI.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new power bloc rises in the US. Can an Indian American some day be president of the United States?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16,8,26],"tags":[26988,26990,19041,26987,26986,26991,26989],"class_list":["post-53921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-asia","category-media-archive","category-politics","tag-ami-bera","tag-hindustan-times","tag-kamala-harris","tag-pramila-jayapal","tag-raja-krishnamurthi","tag-ro-khanna","tag-yashwant-raj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53923,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53921\/revisions\/53923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}