Republican or Democrat?

My next door neighbor, a retired colonel from the US army, is a hard core republican. Initially when we had moved in the neighborhood next to his house, he had said ‘hello’ to us but it was a very remote hello, which had lacked any warmth. However, the time being the healing factor, things changed. We started talking to each other regularly and on weekends we interrupted our outdoor chores to delve into political issues such as tax cuts, abortion, religion and culture. Our discussions were full of heat and convictions. I always felt that I was winning the point.

However, on one such weekend, the colonel asked me a loaded question whether Indians are republicans or democrats. My answer was that since most of the immigrants vote for Democratic Party, most of the Indians might be supporting Democratic Party. But in our beliefs, we are republicans.

Republicans do not support abortion. I think Indians are also against abortions. I have drawn this conclusion based upon the fact that we are grown to be a billion and by 2020, we will surpass China in total population. In India, besides watching movies, producing children has been our most favorite pastime. Family planning concept imparted through publicity and reinforced through free distribution of condoms has helped only in upper and middle class sectors of the population. The minorities in India have been reported to have more children to perpetuate their numbers.

Republicans do not support taxation. I think Indians are also against any form of taxation. In India, tax collection is the lowest in the whole world. Big businesses do not pay their due taxes. Film stars think that they are a special class and do not owe any thing to the country. Big entourage of film starts come to the United States and other countries to entertain us by their vulgar shows, charge big sums of money but do not pay any taxes to the Indian government on this earning. Kargil war or droughts, it is always NRI, who ends up donating hard earned dollars or buying bonds to help ease the foreign exchange shortage in the country. Even in the US, the business folks belonging to the Indian subcontinent have a reputation of not paying any taxes though they drive luxury cars etc.

Republicans always support big businesses. It is said to be a party for rich people. They hate the word ‘welfare’. Indians are like republicans. Money talks in India. In a Hindu temple, a rich person can have unrestricted 'darshan' of the deity any time of the day whereas common people have to wait hours for the temple to open.

Sonia Gandhi can become president of the Congress Party due to the fact that she controls the three trusts, which are famous for large sums of rupees (in millions). Some of the Indians are even willing to swallow their pride ( Do they really have the pride/) and let her become the prime minister of the country. Money is talking here too.

Perhaps, I can write pages on such similarities between Indians and Republican beliefs. However, in short, in my opinion, Indians are republicans by heart.

I come from North India. I was educated in Agra and Delhi University. I have settled in Amercian since 1979 and work for a large industrial corporation as a Project Manager. I am a regular contributor of articles for DigestIndia.com. In India I was writing for Indian Management magazine.