Bobby Jindal is the Republican Governor-elect of the U.S. state of Louisiana. An American-Indian, YES an American-Indian rather than to say Indian-American. Broadly speaking about the Indian immigrants in developed nations, new Indian generation feel their first nation is where the place they are born and some time even refuse or forget that their race is Indian. I have personal met many immigrant Indians like that (British-Indian, American-Indian, New Zealand-Indian). When talking about Indian immigrants in America, the new generations think they are American-Indian not Indian-American, when I say Indian-American means, people who have there behavior, attire, personality will be Indian and they will mix with Americans socially. American-Indian, the one completely think he is American and won’t express any Indian personality, that’s where Bobby Jindal belongs.
Bobby Jindal real name is Piyushnabu Jindal, he changed his name to Bobby after watching The Brady Bunch television program at age four. Jindal was a Hindu but converted to Catholicism, he has also offered testimony before Baptist and Pentecostal congregations since the beginning of the 2007 campaign season.
Well, not accusing him for changing his name and religion, but I believe he is one the broad minded guy who taught where the future lie. For suppose Sunitha Williams, who carried Bhagavath Geeta and pack of Samosa’s with her during her space travel, there where her Indian identity shows.
The reality is, there are many talented American Indians, but one who keeps high profile as American will be successful. Jindal is the one who realized that and achieved it
About Jindal
Jindal was born in Baton Rouge to recently arrived Punjabi Indian immigrants, Amar and Raj Jindal, who were attending graduate school. His family is of Punjabi ancestry, his father left India in the 1970s and his ancestral family village of Khanpura.According to family lore, Jindal adopted the name Bobby after watching The Brady Bunch television program at age four. He has been known by that name ever since, as a civil servant, politician, student, and writer. Legally though his name remains Piyush Jindal.
Jindal was a Hindu but converted to Catholicism as a teenager. He has also offered testimony before Baptist and Pentecostal congregations since the beginning of the 2007 campaign season. He attended high school at Baton Rouge Magnet High School. In 1991, he graduated from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, with honors in biology and public policy. Afterwards, he received a master's degree in political science from New College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. While at Oxford, he wrote an article for the New Oxford Review in which he claimed to have witnessed a friend being possessed by a demon. After Oxford, he joined McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm.
He is the only Indian-American currently serving in Congress, and the second in congressional history after Dalip Singh Saund, a Democrat who represented California's 29th District from 1957 to 1963.
He was chosen by Scholastic Update magazine as "one of America's top 10 extraordinary young people for the next millennium."
He was India Abroad Person of the Year in 2005.
In 1997, he married Supriya Jolly (born 1972). The couple has three children, Celia, Shaan, and Slade.
On Tuesday, August 15, 2006, Jindal assisted in delivering his third child when his wife awoke, in labor. The child was born before ambulances had time to respond.
Appointments
In 1995, U.S. Congressman Jim McCrery (R-LA) introduced his former aide (Jindal) to Republican Governor Murphy J. Foster, Jr.. Foster subsequently appointed Jindal, then aged twenty-four, to be Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals, an agency then representing about 40 percent of the state's budget; he served from 1996 to 1998. From 1998 to 1999, he was executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. He was also the youngest-ever president of the University of Louisiana System between 1999 and 2001. Newly-elected President George W. Bush appointed him Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation; he held that post from July 9, 2001 to February 21, 2003.
2003 campaign for Governor
Jindal came to national prominence during the 2003 election for Governor of Louisiana.
In the jungle primary, Jindal came in first place with 33 percent of the vote. He received endorsements from the largest paper in Louisiana, the New Orleans Times-Picayune; the newly-elected Democratic mayor of New Orleans, C. Ray Nagin; and the outgoing Republican governor, Mike Foster. In the second balloting, Jindal faced the outgoing Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette, a Democrat. Despite winning in Blanco's hometown, he lost many normally conservative parishes in north Louisiana, and Blanco prevailed with 52 percent of the popular vote.
Political analysts have speculated on myriad explanations for his loss. Some have blamed Jindal for his refusal to answer questions about his record brought up in several advertisements, which the Jindal Campaign called "negative attack ads". Others note that a significant number of conservative Louisianans remain more comfortable voting for a Democrat, especially a conservative one, than for a Republican. Still others have mentioned the race factor, arguing that many voters are uncomfortable voting for a non-white person; this theory has lost some support in light of the 2007 election results. Finally, favorite-daughter voting for Blanco in southwestern Louisiana, a swing region of the state, may have contributed to the outcome in 2003.
Despite losing the election, the run for governor made Jindal a well known figure on the state's political scene. He formally declared his intention to run again on January 22, 2007 and eventually won the race for governor.
Congressman of the first district
A few weeks after the 2003 gubernatorial runoff, Jindal decided to run for Louisiana's 1st congressional district. The incumbent, David Vitter, was running for the Senate seat being vacated by John Breaux. He moved to Kenner to run for the congressional seat. He was endorsed by the Louisiana Republican Party in the primary despite the fact that Mike Rogers, also a Republican, was running for the same seat. The 1st District has been in Republican hands since a 1977 special election and is widely considered to be the most Republican district in Louisiana. Although Democrats have a plurality in registration, the 1st tends to vote for socially conservative candidates. Jindal also had an advantage because his campaign was able to raise over a million dollars very early in the campaign, making it harder for other candidates to effectively raise funds to oppose him. He won with 78 percent of the vote.
He was elected Freshman Class President and appointed to the House Committee on Homeland Security, the House Committee on Resources, and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Furthermore, he was made the Vice-Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attacks.
Governor of Louisiana
On January 22, 2007, Jindal announced his candidacy for governor. Polling data showed him with an early lead in the race, and he remained the favorite throughout the campaign. He defeated eleven opponents in the jungle primary held on October 20, including two prominent Democrats, State Senator Walter Boasso of Chalmette and Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell of Bossier City, and an independent, New Orleans businessman John Georges.
Jindal's 54 percent of the vote was greater than that received by outgoing Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, who defeated Jindal in the 2003 gubernatorial general election. Blanco did not seek a second term. Jindal finished with 699,672 ballots. Boasso ran second with 226,364 votes (17 percent). Georges finished with 186,800 (14 percent), and Campbell, who is also a former state senator, ran fourth with 161,425 (12 percent). The remaining candidates collectively polled 3 percent of the vote. Jindall polled pluralities or majorities in sixty of the state's sixty four parishes. He lost narrowly to Georges in Orleans Parish, to Boasso in St. Bernard Parish, and in the two neighboring north Louisiana parishes of Red River and Bienville located south of Shreveport, both of which are historically Democratic and supported Campbell. In the 2003 contest with Blanco, Jindal had lost most of the northern parishes.
Meanwhile, Jindal remains a congressman but will assume his position as governor when he takes the oath of office on January 12, 2008. At thirty-six, he will be the youngest sitting governor in the United States. He will also be Louisiana's first non-white governor since P. B. S. Pinchback served for thirty-five days during Reconstruction.
Positions on selected issues
Congressman Jindal has stated that he is "100 percent against abortion, no exceptions." During his 2003 run for governor he distinguished himself from Kathleen Blanco, who is also pro-life, by stating that he supports an abortion ban without exceptions for the life of the woman, the health of the woman, rape, or incest. His definition of abortion differs from the medical community as it only includes procedures that target the embryo or fetus, a definition that excludes procedures, such as a salpingectomy, that do not target the embryo specifically but may result in what the medical community would call an abortion. He has stated that he would allow emergency contraception, which some pro-life groups consider morally equivalent to abortion. He has voted with the Republican Party on all abortion related issues.
Jindal is a fierce opponent of stem cell research and he supports the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools.
As a private citizen, Jindal voted for the "Stelly Tax plan", a referendum named for former state Representative Vic Stelly of Lake Charles, which swapped some sales taxes for higher income taxes. Whether or not the "Stelly Plan" is giving the desired results is still hotly debated statewide. Early Republican challenger Steve Scalise challenged Jindal on his vote for this tax plan before Scalise dropped out of the congressional race in 2004.
Jindal supported a constitutional amendment banning flag burning, and the Real ID Act of 2005. Jindal has an A rating from Gun Owners of America.
He is a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee. In 2006, Jindal voted with the Republican Caucus 97 percent of the time during the 109th Congress. In 2007, Congress.org, a nonpartisan group, ranked Jindal 432 out of 439 in terms of overall effectiveness in the US House during the 110th Congress.
Jindal also supports co-payments in Medicaid.
In 2006, Jindal sponsored the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act (H.R. 4761), a bill to eliminate the moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling over the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, which prompted the watchdog group Republicans for Environmental Protection to issue him an environmental harm demerit. Jindal's 2006 rating from that organization was -4, among the lowest in Congress. The nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters also censured Jindal for securing passage of H.R. 4761 in the House of Representatives; the group rated his environmental performance that year at 7%, citing anti-environment votes on eleven out of twelve critical issues. Jindal's lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters is 7%. Despite claims that Congressman Jindal's bill was successful H.R. 4761 was actually replaced by S 3711 (known as the Domenici-Landrieu Fair Share Plan). The Senate version was the actual legislation that was passed by both houses of Congress, word for word, and signed by President Bush.
Jindal is an enthusiastic supporter of the war in Iraq. In 2005, Jindal led other freshman Republican House members in dipping their fingers in purple dye to celebrate the 2005 Iraqi national elections.
Electoral history
Governor of Louisiana, 2003
Threshold > 50%
First Ballot, October 4, 2003
Candidate | Affiliation | Support | Outcome |
Bobby Jindal | Republican | 443,389 (33%) | Runoff |
Democratic | 250,136 (18%) | Runoff | |
Democratic | 223,513 (16%) | Defeated | |
Democratic | 187,872 (14%) | Defeated | |
Others | n.a. | 257,614 (19%) | Defeated |
Second Ballot, November 15, 2003
Candidate | Affiliation | Support | Outcome |
Democratic | 731,358 (52%) | Elected | |
Bobby Jindal | Republican | 676,484 (48%) | Defeated |
U. S. Representative, 1st Congressional District, 2004
Threshold > 50%
First Ballot, November 2, 2004
Candidate | Affiliation | Support | Outcome |
Bobby Jindal | Republican | 225,708 (78%) | Elected |
Roy Armstrong | Democratic | 19,266 (7%) | Defeated |
Others | n.a. | 42,923 (15%) | Defeated |
U. S. Representative, 1st Congressional District, 2006
Threshold > 50%
First Ballot, November 7, 2006
Candidate | Affiliation | Support | Outcome |
Bobby Jindal | Republican | 130,508 (88%) | Elected |
David Gereighty | Democratic | 10,919 (7%) | Defeated |
Others | n.a. | 6,701 (5%) | Defeated |
Governor of Louisiana, 2007
Threshold > 50%
First Ballot, October 20, 2007
Candidate | Affiliation | Support | Outcome |
Bobby Jindal | Republican | 699,672 (54%) | Elected |
Democratic | 226,364 (17%) | Defeated | |
Independent | 186,800 (14%) | Defeated | |
Democratic | 161,425 (12%) | Defeated | |
Others | n.a. | 23,682 (3%) | Defeated |