Remembering Steve
A former staffer, a diplomat who dealt with him, and an Indian-American physician honor
Stephen J Solarz, the former Democrat lawmaker and loyal friend of India, who died last week after
a long battle with cancer. Aziz Haniffa reports
‘I sometimes
thought he
might be
India’s only
friend
in Congress’
‘I met no other Congressman who had
a similar grasp of issues and people’
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
MD DEGREE
Robert M Hathaway, who was one of Stephen Solarz’s
closest aides and press sec-
retary for years, said, “Steve
was a friend of India’s when
few others were.”
Hathaway, currently dire-
ctor, Asia Program,
Woodrow Wilson Center
for Scholars, recalled,
“During the height of the
Cold War, he had the abili-
ty to see India in terms
other than through the
prism of US-Soviet Union
rivalry and antagonism.
When most of his col-
leagues in Congress viewed
India as a Soviet lackey, he
recognized it as a vibrant
democracy that would, in
due course, become one of
the world’s great powers.
Long before it became a
cliché, he believed that
India and the United States
should be natural allies and
close friends.”
Hathaway said he always
took delight in being
referred to as ‘India’s best
friend in Congress.’
“And indeed, I sometimes
thought he might be India’s
only friend in Congress,”
Hathaway said, reminisc-
ing about “vivid memories
of Steve standing in the
well of the House, usually
all by himself, decrying the
latest effort to cut US for-
eign aid to India. And the
record will show that
despite all odds, he suc-
ceeded. None of the many
anti-India amendments in
those days ever became
law.”
Stephen Solarz sports a traditional sherwani and a rose at an Indian event
Dr Walter Andersen, associ- ate director, South Asian Studies Program, School
for Advanced International
Studies, Johns Hopkins University, who served for nearly
three decades as a diplomat,
recalled his first meeting with
Stephen Solarz when he was
assigned to the US embassy in
Delhi and was tasked with
being Solarz’s ‘control officer’ (a
term given to the person at the
embassy who has the primary
task of managing the visit of some
important person or group).
“I had only recently arrived in
Delhi when I was asked to do this
for the first time and was under-
standably nervous because Solarz
who had visited India several
times before had the reputation
of not only keeping the ‘control
officers’ very busy, but was con-
sidered such a tough taskmaster.”
Andersen acknowledged, “It
would not have been good form to
say no. I was told to put together
a ‘packed schedule’ as the
Congressman wanted working
breakfasts, lunches and dinners
and all time in between as well
filled with meetings.”
“He lived up to his reputation
for hard work, and I wondered
what he did to relax. I soon found
out. He wanted to play tennis. I
discovered that he revved himself
up for the day with a vigorous
game of tennis. He was an avid
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INDIA ABROAD ARCHIVES
HMI staff members in the United States and on the
‘Indian-American physicians owe
campuses are always available to assist students
Steve a debt of gratitude’
throughout their educational experience.
Dr Navin Shah, one of the founders and former president of the American Association of Phy-
sicians of Indian Origin, said, “Steve
Solarz played such a pioneering and piv-
otal role in prohibiting discrimination
against foreign medical graduates — as
we were then called — and making sure
we were afforded equality with
American medical graduates.”
“I remember meeting with him as
AAPI president in 1985 to seek his help
and advise on discrimination against us
in all aspects of medical practice — from
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