‘She was always a leader’
AZIZ HANIFFA
Maya Tanden marvels at her daugh- ter Neera’s evolution, but is not surprised. The mother of the first
Indian American to head a major
Washington, DC think tank says Neera,
even as a child when the family was on welfare and surviving on food stamps in
Bedford, Massachusetts, was curious about
politics and policy.
“Neera was a precocious as well as a very
curious and a diplomatic child,” Maya
Tanden says. “Whenever I picked her up
from school, she would have questions
about policy, politics and the world. She’d
ask questions like: Why is affirmative
action necessary? When Neera was just a
child, she wanted to be a civil rights lawyer.
Later, she shifted towards her interest into
political activism, working on the (then
Massachusetts governor Michael) Dukakis
(Presidential) campaign, where she met
her husband (andartist) Ben Edwards, and
many campaigns after that. Neera felt
strongly that as citizens we participate in
the process. She has always been advising
Maya Tanden, left, with young Neera and Raj
me who to work for in elections”.
When Neera went to the Yale Law
School, Maya Tanden says, “I naturally
expected that she would practice law. But
she told me she wanted to make a differ-
ence in the lives of others through public
policy. She was always a leader in trying to
help people through public policy. As an
immigrant, I did dream great things for
her. And my dreams have come true.”
When Maya got divorced and her hus-
band returned to India, leaving her with no
job and two young children, Neera and her
brother Raj (now a tax partner at a Los
Angeles law firm), the family went on wel-
fare for more than two years before Maya
got a job at an Indian travel agency. After a
few years, she got a job at Raytheon, first as
a travel agent for the defense manufactur-
ing conglomerate and then later becoming
a contracting administrator, which helped
her put Neera and Raj through college.
When Neera and Ben got married, then
First Lady Hillary Clinton, for whom Neera
worked at the time and was one of her most
trusted aides, threw a wedding shower for
her in the White House. Later, when The
New York Times profiled her, Neera spoke
emotionally how ‘my mother was there.
She, as an immigrant… She was ecstatic to
come to the White House.’
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTES Y: NEERA TANDEN
Trailblazer
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Tanden was just 5, the mother and daughter sunk into abject poverty and had to sustain themselves as welfare recipients.
Tanden had earlier told Politico, ‘My
mother, who had never worked a day in her
life, faced a really stark choice — she could
go back to India, where there was no woman
she ever knew who had been be divorced, or
she could stay here.’
Neera managed to remain in the public
schools in the affluent Boston suburb of
Bedford, thanks to a program that offered
faster building permits to developers who
included low-income housing units in their
developments. She went on to gain admis-
sion to the University of California, Los
Angeles, from where she received her bache-
lor of science degree, and then to the Yale
Law School, from where she received her JD.
Her rise, said Politico, ‘represents a gener-
ational shift inside the party, as junior
staffers in the Clinton Presidency ascend to
Democratic leadership in the Obama era
and as a generation of longtime liberal lead-
ers, like EMILY’s List’s Ellen Malcolm and
Sierra Club’s Carl Pope, step away from exec-
utive roles.’
Tanden is well-known and well-liked in
Democratic policy circles, and her choice
was greeted warmly by leading party figures.
“She is a brilliant and inspired choice,”
Gene Sperling, director of President
Obama’s National Economic Council at the
White House, told India Abroad. “Few peo-
ple anywhere have her combination of poli-
cy, strategic and political skills — not to
mention exceptional work ethic. She has
always had a sharp, innovative and expan-
sive vision of what direction progressive pol-
icy should take, as well as a proven track-
record for skillfully advancing those goals
from both inside and outside the govern-
ment.”
Pete Rouse, senior adviser to President
Obama, and a former White House chief of
staff, echoed Sperling’s sentiments. “Neera
Tanden has a well-deserved reputation as an
innovative thinker and student of public pol-
icy,” Rouse told IndiaAbroad. “She combines
a creative intellect with strong strategic
instincts, and will be a tremendous leader.”
Before she joined her former boss then
Senator Clinton’s Presidential campaign as
her confidante and adviser with the title of
policy director, Tanden worked at CAP as a
senior vice president for academic affairs.
After Clinton lost her bid for the Democratic
nomination to Obama and advised all of her
top aides to join the Obama campaign,
Tanden teamed up with the Obama cam-
paign as domestic policy director. When
Obama became President, she found herself
being offered a job to be a top health-care
adviser in the new administration. Tanden
joined CAP after a year in the Obama
administration for a position especially cre-
ated for her as COO.
Neera Tanden with her husband Ben Edwards and their children
PHOTOGRAPHS COUR TES Y: NEERA TANDEN
