Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant wants to add caste to the city’s anti-discrimination policy, saying discrimination takes place throughout the US based on the South Asian practice of assigning people their social status at birth.

In announcing the proposal this week Sawant said South Asian American and other immigrant working people face caste discrimination in workplaces including in the technology and hospitality sectors, The Seattle Times reported.

“My office is proud to bring forward first-in-the-nation legislation for our city to ban caste-based discrimination, in solidarity with our South Asian and other immigrant community members, and all working people,” Sawant said in a statement. “With over 167,000 people from South Asia living in Washington, largely concentrated in the Greater Seattle area, the region must address caste discrimination, and not allow it to remain invisible and unaddressed.”

Seattle’s anti-discrimination policy currently includes gender, age, race and sexual orientation.

Sawant is the city’s only Indian American council member and a socialist who recently announced she will leave the council when her term expires at the end of the year.

“The fight for this legislation is also linked to the larger working-class fight against the ongoing brutal layoffs in the tech sector,” Sawant said.

In 2022, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing won an appellate court ruling allowing a lawsuit against Cisco Systems over caste discrimination to advance. The lawsuit alleges an engineer was denied professional opportunities, a raise and promotions because of his caste background.

The Alphabet Workers Union — which represents employees of Google’s parent company — has signed on to support Sawant’s ordinance, she said.

Representatives for the union did not respond to requests for comment from the newspaper, but the union has issued statements condemning casteism in tech and at Alphabet in the past, including a statement endorsing the Cisco lawsuit.

“Caste-oppressed workers face many barriers throughout the tech industry, including at Alphabet,” the 2021 statement said. “Caste is a system of oppression analogous to racial discrimination and is rampant throughout many American institutions. We support tech workers around the world who are speaking up about casteism and hostile workplaces.”

Efforts to halt caste discrimination in the U.S. have been slowly growing, with Brandeis University prohibiting discrimination or harassment based on caste in 2019, and the University of California system — the largest state school system in the country — adding caste to its discrimination protection policy in 2022.

Estimated to be thousands of years old, the caste system is based in India’s Hindu scripture. It placed Dalits at the bottom of a social hierarchy, once terming them “untouchables.” Inequities and violence against Dalits have continued although India banned caste discrimination in 1950.

Professors from Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, wrote to the Seattle City Council in support of Sawant’s proposal within hours of its announcement.

If the ordinance is adopted in Seattle, Sawant said she hopes the policy will result in similar action in other cities, and help workers in India and other countries hold U.S.-based employers accountable for caste-based discrimination.

The ordinance — likely to be voted on by the council in late February — would broaden the list of protected groups to include caste.

The council passed a similar measure last year expanding city policy to prohibit discrimination based on someone’s pregnancy status or the outcome of a pregnancy to protect people seeking abortions in the city.

The relationship between India and the US has not been as strong as it needs to be, Indian-American Congressman Shri Thanedar has said, vowing that he will work to strengthen economic ties that benefit both countries and help enhance cooperation between their people.
Mr Thanedar, 67, represents the 13th Congressional District of Michigan, which mainly comprises parts of Detroit and its suburbs. He was sworn in as a member of the US House of Representatives early this month.

He became the fifth Indian-American to be in the current Congress, joining four others: Dr Ami Bera, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal.

“I think historically, this (India-US relationship) has not been as strong a relationship as it needs to be. We are the two biggest democracies. India has a huge economic power. India now has the leadership of G-20,” Mr Thanedar told PTI.

His first month of in the House has been quite historic as he voted 15 times to elect the Speaker. This week, he was made members of the two influential House committees: Small Business and Homeland Security.

“India has been recognized for its economic power. The United States would benefit. I think, the United States and India each will benefit by having strong mutual relationships: a relationship of trust, a mutual economic relationship, … more trade, mutual trade,” he said.

“We have reached a high watermark now, with my election as the fifth Indian American …I want to use this opportunity to build strong India-United States relationships. I want to work very hard on that, and help commerce help the people of both countries be able to work together with a lot of trust, and a lot of cooperation,” Mr Thanedar said.

Mr Thanedar’s is a rags-to-riches story. He arrived in the US when he was 24-year-old primarily to escape poverty and financial hardship he and his family were facing.

Noting that he grew up in poverty in India, he said his home had no running water, often no electricity and the entire family of six brothers and sisters and parents lived together in one house.

“There were times we didn’t know where our next meal is gonna come from. So, having grown up in poverty, having had the struggles that I have had, I understand the struggles of working families, I understand the tough choices that they need to make,” he said.

Indian-Americans have contributed tremendously to the growth and success of the United States and that is great, he said.

“We have some of the best doctors. We have some of the best business people, academicians… But we also have as an immigrant, as a naturalised United States citizen, responsibility beyond economic success, beyond achieving our American dream. We also have an obligation to give back,” he said.

A businessman-turned-politician, Mr Thanedar said he wants to spend the rest of his life in the service of the people of the country.

As a lawmaker, he has said his priorities areas are education, poverty alleviation and health care. The constituency that he comes from has a large number of people living in poverty.

Ultimately, it is improving the quality of life. Covid-19 hit hard the city of Detroit, especially the black and brown communities, he said.

“What Covid did was show us that in a nation as rich as the US, we have poverty, my district has 25 per cent of people at or below the poverty level. We have this huge wealth gap,” he said, as he slammed the Republicans for giving tax breaks to the rich, which has not been helpful as well.

He said the lives of people at the bottom of the economic ladder have not changed for decades.

“We need to really approach it totally differently. We need to create opportunities at the bottom… that means trade education… We need to create a skill set so that people can get good-paying jobs. We need to start working on that, we need to create health insurance, we need to disconnect health insurance from employment,” he said.

Mr Thanedar said regardless of one’s employment status, one should have health coverage, and no one should be worried if a big healthcare crisis will make them bankrupt.

“No one has to worry, if they’re going to pay for their insulin, or their prescription medicine, or they’re going to pay for heat, or they’re going to pay for food, we should not be making those kinds of choices. Our residents should not have to make those conduct choices in a nation which is the world’s richest nation,” he said.

“It just shows something where we have to pay more attention, we need to look at this differently. Not the top-down economics but more of lifting the bottom up and creating opportunities. Opportunities like entrepreneurship,” he said.

“So we need to work on economic issues, first and foremost. Then we can talk about other issues that are just as important, like voting rights. We need to ensure that everyone has the freedom and ability to vote,” Mr Thanedar said.

Chandigarh-born Harmeet Dhillon has lost her bid to head the Republican National Committee (RNC) despite a spirited fight against the US party’s establishment that drew broad support.

The current RNC chair Ronna McDaniels was re-elected on Friday at the Committee’s meeting in California despite criticism for having led the party through three successive defeats and an underperformance.

Dhillon, who polled 51 votes to McDaniel’s 111 in the 168-member RNC, ran a grassroots campaign that brought out the discontent in the ranks of the party that must face a presidential election next year.

After the election, Dhillon said” “At the end of the day, if our party is perceived as totally out of touch with the grassroots, which I think some may take away from this outcome, we have some work to do.” The Republican Party has two high-profile women with roots in Punjab — Dhillon, who proudly broadcasts it with the Twitter handle “@pnjaban”; and Nikki Haley, the first Indian-American to be on the US Cabinet, who has said is “looking in a serious way” a run for the party’s presidential nomination.

The run-up to the RNC election was marred by allegations that McDaniels’s supporters had run a whispering campaign against Dhillon based on her Sikh faith.

Dhillon tweeted during the campaign: “No amount of threats to me or my team, or bigoted attacks on my faith traceable directly to associates of the chair, will deter me from advancing positive change at the RNC.” McDaniels condemned the efforts to use religion against Dhillon citing her own membership in the minority Mormon faith that is often portrayed negatively.

Dhillon received the support of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a rising figure in the party and a likely challenger to former President Donald Trump for the party’s presidential nomination next year.

Endorsing Dhillon, DeSantis said in an interview with the leader of a conservative group within the party, “I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC”.

With McDaniels as chair, the party lost the House of Representatives in 2018 and Senate and the presidential election in 2020 and underperformed in the mid-term elections last year whipping up criticism of the leadership..

Dhillon had picked up support from two state committees, Nevada and Washington, the heads of the party in four states and from several high-profile party donors, as well as media figures influential within the party.

Trump who had connections to both McDaniels and Dhillon stayed neutral in the open, but according to some media reports secretly backed the incumbent.

He had picked McDaniels in 2017 to head the RNC, while Dhillon was one of his lawyers during the last presidential election and the House probe into the January 2021 Capitol riots.

McDaniel is seen as closely aligned herself with Trump and while Dhillon has not openly gone against him, she repudiated Trump’s continued claim that he was the rightful winner in 2020.

But many conservative diehard Trump supporters backed Dhillon and this may have turned off some of the moderate voters.

According to Politico, many had reservations in particular about one “firebrand conservative figure” Charlie Kirk who they feared might exert influence on the party if she were elected.

Dhillon immigrated to the US as a child, said a Sikh prayer at the opening of a session of the RNC in 2016 — the first time a non-Abrahamic religion figured in a national party convention.

Dhillon, whose law practice takes on discrimination cases, mainly by conservatives, has been associated with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is reviled by many Republicans.

The US Embassy in India took celebrations of the 74th Republic Day up a notch by releasing a soulful, goosebump-inducing music video of India’s national song, Vande Mataram. The video, shared on Twitter, shows US officers Raghavan and Stephanie playing the flute and guitar respectively, with vocalist Pavithra Chari in a traditional blue saree, singing the patriotic melody with the tricolor in the background.

“Happy 74th Republic Day, India! We are celebrating #RepublicDay with a rendition of national song Vande Mataram! US Officers Raghavan (flute) & Stephanie (guitar) team up with @pavithra_chari, singer featured on a 2023 #GRAMMYs nominated album & a @StateDept @1beatmusic alum!” the embassy captioned the clip.

Uploaded on the morning of Thursday, the clip has garnered 2,203 views and several comments. Reacting to it, one user wrote: “Thank you, very nice. Great choice of tune for Vande Mataram.” Another user wrote, “Ah fabulous rendition. Thank you.” A third user added, “Thank you @POTUS @USAndIndia . It was a lovely gesture.”

How is the US celebrating India’s Republic Day?

The United States is in full swing to celebrate India’s Republic Day, with the State Department referring to Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remark of India and the US having the world’s “most consequential” partnership. “Happy 74th Republic Day India! We join you today in celebrating India’s Constitution. As @SecBlinken said, “the partnership between India and the United States is simply one of the most consequential in the world. Look forward to our continued collaboration!” it tweeted.

Earlier on Wednesday, the department shared that it will be conducting an online summit which will be presented by the US-India Alliance for Women’s Economic Empowerment on January 26. “On January 26, at 1 p.m. EST, join @stategwi, @state_sca, and #USIndia Alliance @shatterfund to hear about ways the U.S. and India are collaborating to promote women’s economic security,” it wrote.

Five Indian-American teenagers are set to compete for more than USD 1.8 million in awards at a prestigious science and maths competition for high school seniors in the US.

This comes after they were chosen by a national jury of professional scientists, based on the candidates’ scientific rigour and their potential to become world-changing scientific leaders.

With this, the five Indian-Americans – Siddhu Pachipala from Texas, Lavanya Natarajan and Ishika Nag from Florida, Neel Moudgal from Michigan and Ambika Grover from Connecticut, are now among the 40 finalists at the competition.

A press release issued by the Society for Science and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday said Regeneron Science Talent Search, which is now in its 82nd year, celebrates and rewards young scientists focused on a wide range of topics that range from the space race, the AIDS epidemic to climate change.

According to the press release, finalists will participate in a week-long competition in March 2023, during which they will undergo a rigorous judging process that goes beyond their own research to encompass other scientific disciplines.

They will also have an opportunity to interact with leading scientists and share their research during a virtual ‘Public Day’ event on March 12.

“We are thrilled to welcome this inspiring and highly talented class of Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists,” Maya Ajmera, president and CEO, the Society for Science and Executive Publisher, Science News told PTI.

“I am certain these extraordinary students will be following in the footsteps of our many accomplished alumni who are at the forefront of breakthrough discoveries. The 2023 finalists will be using their leadership, intellect, creativity and STEM skills to solve our world’s most intractable challenges,” she said.

The top 10 Regeneron Science Talent Search 2023 winners will be announced during an awards ceremony on March 14 in Washington, the release stated.