COMMUNITY NEWS
RITU JHA
Deepka Lalwani, a board member of the
Democratic Activists For Women Now,
believes she would not have lost her city
council election in 2003, if she had joined
the organization then.
“Now I realize that getting the support
from women would have been helpful. It
would have given me tips and connections,”
Lalwani told India Abroad at the annual
DAWN fundraising event, July 17, in the
San Francisco Bay Area.
“The Indian-American community is still
quite apathetic towards politics. The reason could be that we come from a country
where politics is kind of looked down on.
Here it’s totally different though,” Lalwani
said.
She added that people who came to the
United States 15 years ago are not interested in politics. “It’s taking time for the
Indian community to come into politics,”
she said.
Kavita Tankha, a democratic fundraiser
and analyst said, “I joined DAWN only this
year, but I have seen the work that they do
in helping progressive Democratic women
get elected. They assist women candidates
in every way possible – walking precincts,
doing phone banking and providing finan-
cial support.”
“For me it’s a great way to meet
Democratic pro-choice women, who would
like to see elected to public office,” said
Tankha.
On being asked about the low number of
Community activists lament
lack of women in politics
From left: Deepka Lalwani, Kavita Tankha, Noelani Sallings and Rabiah Khalid
Indian Americans in the organization,
Tankha said, “It’s not just women, we don’t
have male or female elected officials who
can represent the interests of the commu-
nity. But the time is ripe, you will soon see
someone of Indian origin in Congress.”
“Women need to be asked repeatedly to
consider running, often they are the ones
who help others to get elected,” Laurie
Kretchmar, media director for the 2012
project, a nonpartisan campaign of the
New Jersey-based Rutgers’ Center for
American Women and Politics, said.
San Diego protests Mumbai terror attacks
VEENU PURI VERMANI
Over 150 residents of San Diego and neighboring counties gath-
ered at Balboa Park July 23 to protest against the July 13 terrorist
attacks in Mumbai.
Marching in protest
The event, which was supported by several San Diego-based
organizations, started with prayers invoking global harmony, toler-
ance and peace.
Venkatesh Rangarajan, the organizer of the march, said, ‘Being
far away from our country, we cannot do anything. The idea behind
this protest and hopefully some
more to come in the near future is
to influence American opinion
against nations that perpetrate vio-
lence and terror. Both India and
America, the largest democracies,
have been victims of such attacks
and we should stand united to take
some measures against terrorism.’
Pratibha Goel, president Ekal
Foundation, said, ‘For us Mumba-
ites, it is a sad reality to face these
attacks because this city has always
been the safest of all the cities and
towns in India. We used to take
pride in the multicultural fabric of
our society but, because of these
attacks, people are beginning to
doubt their neighbors. That is real-
ly alarming.’
The protestors carried Indian
and American flags and several
placards condemning the blasts, as
they marched in a single file.
About 120 people signed a peti-
tion, condemning the attacks,
which will be submitted to the con-
sulate on behalf of the residents.
Mallika Sherawat
to lead Fremont’s
India parade
;Page A43
and Titli Banerjee will also participate in
the event, ” Dr Romesh Japra, chairman
and convener of the youth festival, told
India Abroad.
“Bappi Lahiri will be getting the life
achievement award from the Indo-
American side,” he added.
“The youth festival is the preliminary to
our big festival, the parade that we have
been doing for the past 19 years,” said
Japra. “This year we thought we should get
the youth involved and give them some
activities. These students will be getting
awards on the grand stage in front of
70,000 people. The basic objective is to
help our children imbibe our heritage, tra-
dition and culture.”
Japra expects a huge crowd this year. The
two-day festival will focus specially on chil-
dren. “We have noticed that children get
bored very fast at the festival, so this year
we will be having rides and games,” Japra
said. A new feature will be a heath fair dec-
orated in Rajasthani style. There will be a
bone density test and cancer check ups as
well.
