Why Vivek Ramaswamy and not Shashi Tharoor? Indians with political talent stand to win abroad than at home

(From left to right) Vivek Ramaswamy and Shashi Tharoor. (File images)

It began with Kamala Harris, who started out as a presidential candidate in the 2020 US Presidential race, and settled to be the Vice-President of the United States. And there is speculation that Nikki Haley who has entered the race for the 2024 presidential nomination of the Republican Party could end up becoming the running mate of Donald Trump.

And now we have Vivek Ramaswamy, the conservative entrepreneur, making a splash with the news that he will run for the highest office in the oldest democracy as a Republican candidate. Then we have the example of Rishi Sunak getting to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as a Conservative Party leader, which has its own sweet undertones of poetic and historical justice for Indians at home.

Our Pride, Their Achievement

Of course, it all started with Bobby Jindal making a bid for the Republican nomination in the 2004 presidential election. It would seem that Indians are justified in believing that this is indeed the hour of the Indian in many ways, getting to be in the top five economies of the world in terms of GDP, and persons of Indian origin getting into positions of power in what for Indians are important countries – the United States and the United Kingdom.

There have been Indian-origin Prime Ministers in Guyana (Cheddi Jagan in the 1960s), Ireland (Leo Varadkar), and Portugal (Antonio Costa), apart from the political leaders in Mauritius and Fiji who aren’t accounted for by snobbish Indians. They have always admired, envied, and desired to be at the high table of the white races.

There is however an ironic flip side to the political success of Indians in America and England. Kamala Harris and Rishi Sunak would not have broken through the caste, religious and regional barriers in Indian politics. Harris had won her political spurs as attorney general in California and as member of the Senate before she ran the presidential gauntlet.

Imagine Harris, Sunak In Indian Politics

Sunak rose to the very top in old school conservative Boris Johnson’s government before he entered the leadership race in a party with its class and racial prejudices, but which has changed and evolved, seven decades after the end of the Second World War and the fading away of the British Empire.

In the past, scientists like Nobel laureates Har Gobind Khorana and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, could not find a job in India and got their rich rewards in foreign countries. Similarly, it would seem that Harris, Sunak et al have succeeded in other countries and they would never have been allowed to enter the political circles in India.

It shows that the two Anglo-Saxon democracies – America and Britain – have been truly democratic in throwing the doors open for talent, and ambitious Indians could make a go for it. It is a moot point whether there is an acute deficit of political leadership in a small country like Britain and it has become easier for “superior” Indians to make their way to the top. But that will remain an untestable generalisation with its grain of truth.

Where Political Talent Takes You Far

But even if it holds, it has to be given to the British that they are willing to doff their hats to a man or woman of merit. And there is no doubt that the political compulsions of a multi-racial society have had their role to play. But beneath it all, British polity, and a little reluctantly British society, is responding to the presence and value of people of other races and faiths. In America too, the pressures of a multi-racial and multi-religious society are exerting their influence on politics. And it has had a role in the emergence of Jindal, Haley and Harris and scores of other Indians in state legislatures and local governing bodies.

It is legitimate to ask: How different is this from the caste and regional, and even religious, competitiveness of Indian politics? And the general answer could be that there is not much difference between here and there. In doing so, we could be missing an important issue.

In Britain and America the talent quotient is quite high. If an intelligent and articulate person were to step forward and present her or his case, people are willing to listen and they are willing to accept you, and your origins do not matter. That is why a Barack Obama and a Kamala Harris in America get a hearing, and so do Sunak and Sajid Khan (from Pakistan) in England. Indians stand a better chance in a political talent contest abroad than in India. In America-like and England-like conditions, Shashi Tharoor of the Congress party would have gone farther than he has done so far in Indian politics.

Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr is a New Delhi-based journalist. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.