Bobby Jindal jumps into 2016 White House race, becomes subject of online mockery

US BOBBY JINDAL 2015Washington (IANS): Louisiana’s Indian-American governor Piyush “Bobby”Jindal launched a historic bid for the US presidency recalling his parents’ journey to the land of “real opportunities” yet seeking to distance himself from his heritage.
His dad, who “grew up in a house without electricity or running water” and “was the only person in his family to get past the 5th grade” and “mom came to Louisiana because they believed in America,” said Jindal Wednesday announcing his bid for Republican nomination.
“And when they got here they found that the legend was true,” said Jindal, 44, who became America’s youngest governor when elected to his first term in 2007, standing before a before a giant American flag at an event centre in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner.
“And they found that America is indeed the land of the free and home of the brave,” he said painting himself as a doer among a crowd of talkers as he became the first Indian-American and the 13th Republican to join the 2016 White House race.
“The guy in the White House today is a great talker, and we have a bunch of great talkers running for President,” said Jindal referring to President Barack Obama and his rivals. “We’ve had enough of talkers, it’s time for a doer. I’m not running for president to be somebody, I’m running for President to do something.”
But even as he talked about his immigrant parents from Punjab “coming to an idea…and that idea is America,” he set himself against immigrants.
“We cannot allow people to immigrate to this country so that they can use our freedoms to undermine our freedoms.”
“That’s exactly what has happened in Europe, where they have 2nd and 3rd generations of immigrants who refuse to embrace the values and culture of the countries they have moved into,” Jindal said. “We must not let that happen here.”
And accusing Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton of “already trying to divide us by ethnicity, by gender, and by economic status,” Jindal said: “As for me, I’m sick and tired of people dividing Americans.”
“And I’m done with all this talk about hyphenated Americans. We are not Indian-Americans, Irish-Americans, African-Americans, rich Americans, or poor Americans – we are all Americans,” he said returning to a now familiar campaign theme.
Jindal’s pronouncement came as no surprise to the over three million strong Indian-American community, which gave enthusiastic support to his Congressional and gubernatorial campaigns, but now feels alienated with such talk.
As Pearson Cross, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who is writing a book on him told the Washington Post: “There’s not much Indian left in Bobby Jindal.”
US BOBBY JINDAL MOCKERY[BBC reported: “Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s announcement that he is entering the Republican presidential race has become the subject of online mockery.

“Mr Jindal launched his campaign with a call for a uniform US identity, saying he disliked Americans being identified by origin, ethnicity or wealth.

“The hashtag #BobbyJindalisSoWhite began trending on Twitter after the launch.

“The tweets poked fun at Mr Jindal’s speech and alleged attempts to distance himself from his Indian heritage.”]

Once considered a rising star of the Republican party, he has lost support within his own party too which he once chided to stop being the “stupid party.
In his announcement, he also took a swipe at Jeb Bush suggesting that the Republican frontrunner was “saying that we need to hide our conservative ideals. But the truth is, if we go down that road again, we will lose again.”
Jindal’s entry into the race came two days after a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found him sharing the bottom of a list of 16 candidates with zero percent of Republican primary voters picking him as their top choice against Jeb Bush’s 22 percent.
So much so that he faces the danger of being eliminated from presidential primary debates starting August six as Fox News and CNN are limiting the first two major debates to the top 10.
Time magazine suggested Jindal faced an “uphill climb to the nomination”, the New York said “his bid appears to be a long shot”, while the Washington Post in an editorial said Jindal had “lost his way” and Republican primary voters seeking a winner would be “more interested in a governor with a stronger record.”

 

JINDAL was born in Baton Rouge on June 10, 1971.  He graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1988 and went on to attend Brown University where he graduated with honors in biology and public policy. Following his graduation from Brown he attended Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar, having turned down admissions to medical and law schools at both Harvard and Yale.

In 1994, Jindal went to work for McKinsey and Company as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies before entering public service. In 1996, he was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH).

In 1998, Jindal was appointed Executive Director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. At the conclusion of the Commission’s work, Jindal was appointed President of the University of Louisiana System.

President George W. Bush appointed Jindal to serve as Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2001. He later resigned from the position in 2003 to return to Louisiana and run for elected office for the first time.  In that race, Jindal went from being a relatively unknown candidate for governor, to receiving the most votes in the primary election and eventually 48 percent of the vote in runoff.

In 2004 he was elected to the United States Congress representing the First District of Louisiana. He also served as Assistant Majority Whip.

He was re-elected to the Congress in 2006 before making his second run for governor in 2007.Bobby Jindal was sworn in as Governor of Louisiana on January 14, 2008. He was re-elected in 2011