Thursday, October 11, 2012

John Liu Could Be Mayor

Jupiter And Obama
Bobby Will Run In 2016
Nitish Is My Lula
John Liu And Being Asian American
John Liu: Mayor Of NYC: 2013
John Liu: Victory
New York City


My friend John Liu, the New York City Comptroller, the most senior Democrat in the city, could get elected Mayor next year. He stands a strong chance. About 10% of Americans are black, about 10% of New Yorkers are Asian American. And John Liu is not half white. And to be Mayor of New York City is to hold the second most important political office in America.

It would be a historic win if John wins. John F Kennedy, the first Catholic to get elected president, had brothers called Bobby and Teddy, so does John Liu. That John broke a barrier. This John is about to.

We as a community have to do the best we can to make it happen. For one, this guy loves the Nepali community. He has shown up for our events when there were no potential voters or donors in the room. And he knew, it is not like we duped him into thinking otherwise.

When John Liu ran for Comptroller, he got more votes than did Mayor Bloomberg, and John is not even a billionaire. He was not an incumbent Mayor. Tells me if he had run for Mayor instead of Comptroller he would have beat Bloomberg. The Democrats should have nominated John Liu instead of Bill Thompson to run against Bloomberg. Bloomberg would have been defeated, if that was the idea.

Last year John Liu was leading in the polls. Then a Chinese soldier in the US Army succumbed to racism, committed suicide. John Liu organized protest events, made some noise. And he got targeted. The FBI created a slight stink around him and drove down his poll numbers. It was a deliberate institutional attack. It was racist.

Goes on to show it is harder being an Asian American in this city than it is to be a gay woman who is friends with a Mayor who is not from her party, or a white guy married to a black woman, or a black guy who ran for Mayor and lost. Those would be the other top three contenders for the throne, Christine Quinn, the City Council Speaker, Bill De Blasio, the Public Advocate, and Bill Thompson, the former Comptroller.


I was Barack Obama’s first full time volunteer in New York City and I have the scars to show for it. They had me disappear the same day Barack beat Hillary and they let me out a few days after Barack beat McCain. They had me in for six months; they had Mandela in for 27 years. The racism he faced was about 50 times stronger.

I was born in Bihar. People in this city are not going to teach me the rough and tumbles of politics. Of the 200,000 Nepalis in America I was the only full timer to have worked for Nepal’s democracy movement in 2005-2006. In April 2006, over a period of 19 days, about eight million people out of the country's 27 million came out into the streets to shut the country down completely to force a dictator out. If you can deal with a dictator, you can deal with racism.

In 1996 I showed up in Bible Belt Deep South Kentucky for college and ran for Freshman Class President and got fewer votes than anyone else. Within five months of that I had myself elected Student Body President at the top liberal arts college in the South, a college record, the first time a freshman had done so. Before I came to America, too young to legally run for office, I was Vice General Secretary to a party whose General Secretary was Hridayesh Tripathy and Rajendra Mahto was a Central Committee member, junior to me. Both Tripathy and Mahto are cabinet ministers in Nepal today. They have been for years. Tripathy first became cabinet minister over a decade ago.

I am political and I am rooting for John Liu. How about you?

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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

TMDP, MPRF Unification: Huge


Yadav should be made Chairman, and Thakur should be made Ganeshman. And all these people pictured above should be made members of the politburo. I might have left a few names in haste. Please make amends.

Thakur represents the Terai's central role in Nepal's democracy movement going back decades. Upendra Yadav symbolizes the first Madhesi Kranti. Sharad Singh's bona fides are as strong as anyone's. The guy quit the powerful Defense Ministry to make a strong claim on behalf of the Madhesh. And he represents 40% of the Terai's population: the Pahadis. Gachhedar represents the Tharus, a group larger than the Yadavs, the largest among the many Madhesi groups. Tripathy, Mahato, Sarita, Anil: they are all Gajendra's disciples. They all have long histories.

After this step all Madhesi parties will be forced to join the unification bandwagon. They will do that or they will get left behind. I think it is important to bring all Madhesi parties together, even small ones like the ones led by Sarita Giri. Sarita Giri has so many benefits to harvest in such a party in a new Nepal where women will get one third reservations top to bottom.

The unified party should be called Sadbhavana Party or Janata Dal. Two words, with no mention of either Terai or Madhesh. Because this party has also to grow into the hills.

MPRF-D has no option but to fall in line.

It is not true Upendra Yadav needs to join the current government for the unification to go forward. The current government will likely make way for a caretaker government full of non political people to hold elections. So everybody is getting out. There is no point in Upendra Yadav getting in right now.

A general convention has to be held by the end of 2012. And elections are in April. This unified party will easily emerge the second largest party in the country. It just might even emerge the largest.

It is for the party convention to decide who the party president will be. It is for the parliamentary party to decide after the elections in April 2013 as to who the leader of the parliamentary party will be. Let the democratic process take its due course. Don't try to make big decisions in smoke filled rooms.

TMDP, MPRF expedite unification talks
"A unified party under leadership of Thakur will be announced in the third week of Bhadra," said a Madhesi leader on the condition of anonymity, adding, "Yadav will be powerful senior vice-chairman." ...... However, leaders from MPRF claimed that the unified party will be led by Yadav and Thakur will be given post of supreme leader of the party. ..... MPRF has proposed to name the unified party through general convention after unification. ..... some leaders of TMDP including Vice-chairman Hridayash Tripathi were not happy with the move as they have stressed the need for unification with MPRF-Democratic rather than with MPRF..... "It is not bad to hold discussion with any party for unification but there are differences between TMDP and MPRF at policy level," said TMDP Joint General Secretary Jitendra Sonal, adding, "Unification between the two parties mean either TMPD should quit the present government or MPRF should join the government which is not an easy task."
UML dissidents to quit the party on Oct 4
PM seeks support for democratization of army
MPRF-R breaks links with JP Gupta
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