By Aziz Haniffa
he firing of U.S.
Attorney Preet Bharara
has disturbed and sad-
dened many in the
Indian-American com-
munity, after the high-
profile prosecutor’s termination
by the Trump administration fol-
lowing his refusal to resign.
Bharara, who had been
appointed by President Barack
Obama in 2009, initially had
been asked by President Donald
Trump in November
to stay on. His recent
dismissal from the
Southern District of
New York came amid
the termination of 46
U.S. attorneys.
“Any new president certainly has the
prerogative to name
U.S. attorneys and it
is not unusual for a
new president to seek
the resignation of
holdovers,” said
Preeta Bansal, a former solicitor general of New
York State and legal personnel
lead for the Obama-Biden transition in 2008. “Given that Preet
was specifically asked by the
then-President-Elect Trump during the transition to stay on as
U.S. attorney, it seems appropriate that he did not respond to a
blanket request for resignations.
His dismissal was more in the
nature of a firing and Preet
seems to have responded to it
and treated it appropriately as
such.”
“The Trump administration
wants to get rid of anybody who
challenges corporate America
and he [Trump] especially wants
to get rid of anybody who chal-
lenges Wall Street,” said Kumar
Barve, former majority leader in
the Maryland House of
Delegates. “Preet is an incorrupt-
ible prosecutor and he took on
Wall Street and he beat them. He
took on people committing
Medicare and Medicaid fraud
and he beat them. And, so, this
is a guy we should be proud of as
Americans—put aside the Indian-
American. I am proud of him as
an American.”
Nisha Biswal, former assistant
secretary of state in the Obama
administration, said Bharara’s
record was without compromise.
“Preet is and has been a
sworn officer of the law who is
sworn to not show any bias or
preference towards any in the
pursuit of justice -- not Indian-
Americans, or Indians for
Democrats or Republicans. He
has demonstrated that time and
again in how he pursues investi-
gations.”
Longtime Republican Party
activist and fundraiser, Sampat
Shivangi, called Bharara’s firing
“the great fiasco of recent
times.” He said after his initial
disappointment with the prose-
cutor, he had
come to admire
him. “Preet
Bharara showed
that he will not go
down without a
fight and he did
provide one.
Many say he
bought extra time
before he left his
office on March
13, as he could
carry some addi-
tional investiga-
tive work against
Trump and his family.”
Shivangi suggested it was
time for Bharara to move into
state or national politics. “There
are rumors that he is thinking of
running for the attorney general
or governor of New York in a few
months,” he said.
“I can assure you he will be
back on a bigger stage and make
us proud again, and so we wish
him the very best,” Shivangi
said.
Attorney and community
activist, Ravi Batra said he was
troubled by Trump’s apparent
change of heart after offering
Bharara the opportunity to stay
on. “What is unique about this
termination are two things:
then-President-Elect Trump on
November 30 offered to Preet to
remain as his United States
attorney as part of the Trump
presidency, and Preet readily
accepted that offer, given his
pending significant and mean-
ingful prosecutions and investi-
gations and because he ran his
office independent from poli-
tics.” He called the demand for
resignation “a breach of the
November 30 presidential offer
and Preet’s acceptance. Which
raises the troubling question of
‘why?’ “
M. R. Rangaswami, Silicon
Valley entrepreneur and the
founder and chairman of
Indiaspora, said he was intrigued
about whether Bharara now has
political aspirations. “I only
know what I’ve read from media
reports, and it appears that sen-
ior officials in the administration
wanted to ‘clean house’ and
appoint a whole new slate of
U.S. attorneys,” Rangaswami
said.
Rangaswami defended the
prosecutor’s style. “Whether you
like him or not, whether or not
you like his methods, he went
after corruption in high places
without fear or favor, and he was
an equal opportunity thorn in
the side of both political parties.
This speaks to his independence.
I am aware that Indian-American
sentiment towards him has
ebbed and flowed, but the law is
blind and does not care about
the ethnicity of those who might
have fallen afoul of it.”
Sanjay Puri, founder and
chairman of the U.S.-India
Political Action Committee, said,
the prosecutor’s legacy would be
that of “an equal opportunity
prosecutor.
He has offended people in all
the power structures and that
should tell you that he was
doing his job and doing it well. I
understand that there might be
issues with some in the Indian
American community not being
happy about some of the people
he prosecuted. But, the question
is what would it say about Preet
and the Indian American com-
munity if he did not prosecute
them and do his job.”
Stressing that his organization
is nonpartisan, Dr. Ajay Lodha,
president of the American
Association of Physicians of
Indian Origin, noted that Bharara
had been invited twice to be a
convention keynote speaker and
embraced him as courageous
prosecutor. Lodha, however,
would not comment on the fir-
ing. “There is no denying that he
leaves a highly admirable legacy
– he was so independent, he
went after both Democrats and
Republicans, everybody.”
But Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar,
Trump’s most high profile
Indian-American supporter and
former surrogate, said he
believed most Indian-Americans
would be pleased with Bharara’s
dismissal “because he was tar-
geting Indians for prosecution.”
He said that Bharara’s prosecution of Indian diplomat
Devyani Khobragade, arrested in
2013 for visa fraud, was “
unfor-giveable….It was very offensive
to have a diplomat, a lady, to
have her stripped and be
searched on her private parts
and all that. Don’t you have any
sense?” He said Bharara had
crossed the line with Devyani.
“So when I saw that he had been
fired, I said ‘OK maybe now he’s
got a taste of his own words.
What goes around, comes
around.”
T
INDIA ABROAD March 24, 2017 12 COVER STORY
INDIAABROAD.COM
Community
Backlash
Many
speculate
former U.S.
attorney will
seek political
office
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Preet Bharara, then U.S. attorney for the Southern
District of New York, speaks at a news
conference about the corruption charges brought
against New York State Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver, in New York, Jan. 22, 2015.
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Anger, disappointment over Indian-American
prosecutor’s firing
