Top US Democrat calls on South Asians to back Obama

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, on Wednesday said the United States needs to embrace a "vigorous foreign policy based on cooperation and not confrontation" -- something, he said, that is being espoused by Barack Obama, the Democratic Presidential hopeful.

Urging the South Asian community, including Indian Americans, to help elect Obama, the former Vermont governor said the US needs policy which "is respectful" of other states.

"The world is too small now for (one country) to dictate to everybody else," Dean said, adding that the US needs to start relying on cooperation and to have partnerships with other countries.

"We need your (South Asians') help in order to win this election. Senator Obama is going to be the next president of the US, only if you vote and if you help to get the vote out both by being generous so we can hire more people and also by talking to your friends," Dean said while addressing a meeting of Indian Americans in New York on Wednesday evening.

Dean urged the gathering to talk to all of their friends and acquaintances, saying it did not matter if the friends of the South Asians were Democrats, Republicans or even independents. "A terrific thing about Barack Obama is that he is not just reaching out only to Democrats, but  is reaching out to all kinds of people, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, all who want a good government," Dean said.

Dean was speaking at an informal gathering of South Asians, organised by the Asian American Finance Committee and the DNC South Asian American Leadership Council, at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York on Wednesday evening.

Close to 60 people of South Asian origin, including some from Pakistan, attended the reception aimed at benefitting the Obama Victory Fund. Among those who were present at the event included DNC national co-chairs Preeta Bansal (senior policy advisor to the Obama campaign),  Nasser Ahmad, and Romita Shetty, a managing director at Lehman Brothers.

Dean, who individually met most of the attendees following his speech, referred to Indian American legislator Jay Goel of Ohio.

The point Dean sought to drive home was that things are changing and Americans do not cast votes to elect public officials on the basis of their caste or creed.

"I asked Goel if there was a large South Asian constituency in his town and he said, yes, my mother, my father, my sister and me," Dean joked.

His point was that people in the US are  not voting the same way they used to, although, he admitted, that changing voting preferences does not mean that racism is dead and ethnicity does not matter. "But  this country is changing dramatically and I want you (South Asians) to think of this," Dean said.

"Young people think that they have a place for them in this (Democratic) party. When they look at the Republican party they see that the party has systematically insulted just about every single group in America in order to make people angry enough to win elections. The South Asian community has been hurt by the anti-immigration policies," Dean said.

Noting that he personally knows that American citizens, including South Asians, have been strip searched before boarding a plane, Dean said that is not what the founding fathers of the American constitution had visualised. "We need to make sure that this country continues to have freedom and equal opportunity for all," Dean said.

Noting that America's standing in the world has been hurt in the past eight years, Dean said the next president has to do two things -- to heal at home and to restore America's moral authority elsewhere in the world -- so people in the world would respect America.

"You do not get respect by pushing them around and bullying them. You get respect by earning the respect. If America has lost moral integrity in the ast eight years, I think Senator Obama can help us (get that back)," Dean said.