San Francisco: Having made waves in medicine, business, law, information technology and other professional sectors, Indian-Americans are now looking to making their presence felt in the political arena. The trend is epitomised by Bobby Jindal, the 32-year-old second generation Indian-American, who is the Republican candidate for the election for Governor of Louisiana.

Jindal and Kumar Barve, the Democrat majority leader in the House of Maryland, were among the speakers at a major day-long seminar held in San Francisco on July 26 to train Indian-Americans of varying degrees of experience on how to interject themselves in the political process at various levels.

The Political Training and Networking Conference was organised by the Indian American Leadership Initiative (IALI), which plans to train thousands of Indian-Americans to run for office. The goal is to elect 10 Indian-Americans to Federal office, both the Congress and the Senate, by the year 2010, by focusing on lower political offices and working their way up the ladder.

For years, Indian-Americans have been sitting on the stands cheering for those in the political court, but now has come the time for the community to be on the court, was the sentiment expressed at the well- organised and well-attended conference.

"Indian-Americans have been contributing large amounts of money to political campaigns, but for all the money we have given, how much do we really get out of it? The tangibles are so little," said IALI president Arun Nikore.

For Indians in America, the need to be politically alive and actively involved in the political fabric of the United States has been highlighted by the rising hate crimes and the increasing anti-immigrant sentiments in the county.

Underlining the need for Indians to build greater representation in public office, Deepika Lalwani, who stood and lost a city Council election in a Bay Area city in 2002, said, "You can be the best CEO or entrepreneur and have two Mercedes in your garage, but on the street you are just an ordinary brown person. Until we don't reach the decision making process, our voices will not be heard.

"We have numbers that our parents didn't have and unlike our parents, we know we are going to stay here and this is our home. But like our parents, we continue to face discrimination and hate crimes are increasing," said Lovely Dillon, an attorney and an IALI board member.

"We need to find a voice in America as an Indian-American," she added.

Expressing similar sentiments, a participant, Neera Puri, a psychologist said, "After the 9/11 tragedy, we were viewed as different. Our gurudwaras and temples were attacked and hate crime increased. We didn't realise how important representation was till we became scapegoats."

Speakers acknowledged that past generation of Indian-Americans had been more focused on settling into jobs and raising families than civic affairs. There had been scattered campaigns by Indian candidates in past years, but few succeeded.

PTI