Two Indo- American candidates have overcome the partiality faced by Indians at elections by attaining victory in the New Jersey local elections. One of the Indian origin candidates has been declared the Mayor of Hoboken.
Ravi Bhalla was elected the first Sikh Mayor of the town which is situated in the suburbs of New York City. Bhalla was the major target of the anti-Sikh campaign pamphlet that declared: "Don't let TERRORISM take over our town!" which was placed beside a turbaned candidate.
Indian American candidates or to be precise Indian-origin candidates run for local offices, school boards, local and borough councils. Many of them turn out to be victorious. By far, the state only has one Indian American in the State Assembly, Raj Mukherji, who was elected in 2014 from Jersey City.
Candidates of Indian origin are widely popular. Most of them are either mayors or hold a strong position in the field of administration.
The German city Bonn which is gearing itself up to host over 20,000 delegates and environmental activists from over 200 nations for the Annual UN Climate Change Conference, is governed by an Indian-origin Mayor, Ashok Sridharan.
Harbhajan Kaur Dheer went on to become the first Indian-origin and Asian elected mayor in the UK in 2016. Harbhajan became the mayor of Ealing Council of London. She was a part of the Labour Party and also served the borough as the governor of many schools.
In 2012, Satyendra Singh Huja, a Sikh American, was elected as the mayor of Charlottesville in Virginia.
Shirley Rodrigues was elected as the deputy mayor for environment and energy in August 2016, thus making her the second Indian born to be named to such a post after Indore-born Rajesh Agrawal who was appointed to the same post in business in June 2016.
Indian-origin councillor Philip Abraham was elected as the mayor of Loughton in the UK in May 2017. He served as the deputy mayor for the last one year. The Kerala-born councillor is attached to other Indian communities in the UK.
Going back in time, Mahendra Chaudhry was elected as the first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister in 1999. Fiji has a long list of Indian origin candidates, serving in the field of administration. Ahmed Ali, George Shiu Raj, Vijay.R.Singh were elected as cabinet ministers with Anand Singh as the former Attorney General.
Ireland's prime ministerial seat is presided by an Indian origin, Leo Varadkar.
CV Devan Nair, Singapore's third President was of Indian origin with Sellapan Ramanathan as the President since 1999 and the list continues. Ramon Bagatsing the only Indian Filipino was the longest serving Mayor of Manila, from 1971 to 1986. He was a part of Liberation of Manila during the Second World War and the Plaza Miranda Bombing in 1971.
Abdool Razack Mohamed was one of the three founding fathers of independent Mauritius with Dayendranath Burrenchobay as former governor-general.
Canada, Australia, Mauritius, Kenya, Netherlands and the list goes on. Candidates of Indian origin have been acquiring their seat of power for a long time. With Ravi Bhalla's victory as the first Sikh Mayor, despite the anti-Sikh protests in New Jersey, is a huge boost to Indians worldwide and might be taken as a counter effect of the ever-increasing racism and animosity.
