Interview with Nidhi Makhija, candidate for Mayor in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
By Raif Karerat
Follow @ambazaarmag
Nidhi Makhija is a first-time Democratic candidate for mayor in the township of Bridgewater, New Jersey who is also looking to become the first Indian American to ascend to a mayoral position within the state, and the first Indian American woman to achieve such a position in the country.
Born and raised in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, where her parents also hail from, Makhija earned her undergrad degree in engineering from the Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology in Indore before studying management at the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai.
After working in Mumbai for a while with Siemens, she moved to the United States in 2001 and garnered a Master of Business at the Yale School of Management, where she also completed “leadership training.”
Currently, in addition to running her campaign, Makhija is also a dedicated wife and mother. Her husband, Rajesh Makhija, is the chief executive officer of software distributor Wyde, a subsidiary of Mphasis. Of her children, one is a rising college freshman who will be starting in the fall, and the other is in middle school.
“I want to help the people in my community to stand up for what they believe in. I don’t want them to ever be complacent, I want them to strive for higher goals and achieve their full potential. I’m conscious that I may be the first Indian American woman in the race, but if I can inspire and be a role model for minorities and for children and inspire them to eventually take up higher leadership roles in their communities, then that will be time well spent,” Makhija said in a phone interview to The American Bazaar.
“I would urge my community to go to my website and extend support in whatever way they can. They can volunteer, they can contribute money, and they can help by sharing their views and thoughts,” she continued.
Excerpts of the interview with Nidhi Makhija:
A major part of your platform is turning Bridgewater, N.J, into one of the “Top 10 Towns to Live in America.” In broad strokes, how do you intend to do so?
When I moved to Bridgewater it was one of the top towns to live. This would be 10 to 15 years ago. But over the years we have seen it regressing and today if you look at the last rankings in New Jersey Monthly, it’s rated at 120, which isn’t even in the top 100 towns to live in New Jersey.
Things have not been going very well. There’s been a lack of transparency in the town’s operation; the citizens don’t see where their tax dollars are going. I do not think that there is any intent to do that, but I think we’ve become complacent with the way things have been happening.
We need to shake things up; we need to show that there are better ways of providing quality service to the citizens. We need to bring in new age technology and we need to look at wastage in the government. We need to find out about the programs that are being run — are they really beneficial to the citizens that they’re supposed to serve?
We also need to look at why businesses are leaving the township. Bridgewater has been a hub of Big Pharma activity but over the past few years a lot of companies have been moving out of Bridgewater and taking their operations elsewhere — we need to figure out why that is happening. Can we design incentive schemes for them? Can we encourage smaller businesses?
We need to encourage millennials to not leave the city. We educate our kids and then they leave for other cities — for better opportunities and a better cultural environment.
We don’t have a downtown in Bridgewater; we don’t have a cultural center in Bridgewater. The Bridgewater government paid attention to these aspects which directly impact the quality of life of its citizens.
Those are the main areas I’ll be touching up on during my campaign.
How will your experiences in the corporate world help in public service leadership?
Think about it this way: the mayor of a township — local government — is like a CEO of a business. With my extensive business technology background, with which I’ve been working for more than 20 years, I’ve worked with different governments and different Fortune 500 companies, helping them transform their businesses, either through digital innovation, helping them become more cost effective, avoiding the pitfalls, helping with risk and maximizing value, and looking at the entire chain across transformation of processes, people, data, technology, risk management, and regulation. I think that with that broad array of experience and the skill set that I’ve developed over the last 20 years, I think that I am well set to become the “CEO” of the town.
You’re a naturalized American citizen. How has the experience of immigrating influenced your political outlook?
I would say I’m less of a politician and more of a community lover. That’s how I’ve been whether I’m in India or a citizen of the U.S. Being an immigrant has its challenges in terms of re-establishing yourself and your credentials in a different setup — a different country. You have to study the environment in which you’re operating. You have to understand what works in that environment and what doesn’t work in that environment. You have to re-establish the connection, which comes easy when you’re born and brought up in that area or geographical vicinity.
Those are some of the challenges that I’ve also faced during the past 15 years or so in the U.S. But what I feel is a greater advantage for the immigrant community is that they have a fabulous multicultural understanding which cannot be studied in any colleges — it can only be developed with experience. You’re never complacent with what you have and you keep striving for higher.
I have multinational work experience. I’ve worked in India, I’ve worked in the U.K., and I’ve worked in the U.S. And today’s global world is changing. Economies are expanding, boundaries are dissolving, technology is entering into our life like never before, and I have an understanding of these matters that are going to impact the lives of future American citizens.
As an immigrant and a woman, two demographics that are often grossly underrepresented in the political arena, have you encountered hurdles or foresee any in the future?
I think there’s both pros and cons to it. I am an Asian Indian, I grew up in a conservative background, but I was fortunate to be brought up with the right balance of value and independence and education. So moving to the U.S. and adapting to the American culture because of that was a little bit easier for me. I’m excited because the values I learned then form the basis of my character now and I’m excited to be a role model for women and children and I honor my cultural heritage in everything that I do. I’m proud to be probably be the first Asian Indian woman in a mayoral race.
You’re said to believe in “Ageless Learning.” What does that mean?
That’s something my dad instilled in me and I strongly believe that learning never stops in life. Our lives are a continuous process of learning and evolving. We need to continuously educate and become better professionals, better citizens, and better human beings. At whatever age or phase of life you’re at, there is something new to learn. That’s what I mean by ageless learning — learning never stops.
You have an incredibly technical vision for Bridgewater’s future, building off of its strong pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and financial industries. What does that mean for seniors who might feel they’re being left behind as Bridgewater moves into the future?
I have been visiting the senior centers in and around this area to understand what the hot buttons are. From my township’s perspective, Bridgewater is an old township. It’s not very well developed for ageless living. The pavement doesn’t exist everywhere in the city, for example. There are newer developments that have walking trails, while there older developments that do not have walking trails. Things like that — that will be important because in the next 10 to 20 years there will be a huge population of aging Americans in my township, and I want to be able to provide for them.
While there are some programs in place, what I have not seen are programs that will keep our seniors in touch with what’s changing in their environment, specifically, technology. I want to start some educational programs for our seniors so that they feel comfortable navigating in today’s world. I’m still exploring different ways to improve the quality of life for seniors in our township.
You mentioned you’re a community lover at heart. Do you have any experience does she have in grassroots politics or administration. For example, have you stood for school board or council elections or anything along those lines?
I haven’t been a part of the council, but I have been attending township council meetings here and I have my own take from those meetings. I do understand what needs to change in this township and that is going to be the central theme of my campaign. As far as grassroots politics is concerned, I haven’t been a political activist if that’s what you’re getting at, but I have had a position in a local organization, I have been associated with the Bridgewater education foundation in the past, I have held executive positions with some of the NGOs that work with the Asian American community, so yeah, I have been involved with the community on the whole. Now is the time I want to step up my efforts in the political arena and come out with what I stand for, what I can bring to the table, and how I can make a difference in the community through my skills and through my leadership.
There has been a notable rise in hate crimes against the Indian-origin community in New Jersey, and particularly in Central Jersey. What measures are you going to take to make Bridgewater safe?
As far as Bridgewater is concerned, so far we thankfully have not had much in the way of hate crimes, but I am aware of what’s happening outside of Bridgewater in parts of the state. One of the things that triggers hate crimes is jealousy, or maybe fear, or ethnic hatred. Or in 66 percent of the cases it’s just thrill seeking in resisting newcomers. A big part of handling this type of crime is improving the education and awareness of the community — on ethnicity, racial differences, cultural differences. I think increasing awareness will be a big step that will help us create inclusive communities.
Half the time when I talk to people they are not aware of cultural differences — why certain things are done the way they are done. The Indian culture is a very closed culture — we have not shared out ethnic heritage as openly as some of the other cultures have done in America. We need to encourage that. We need to create a coalition between the police, the children, the media, and active groups in the community such as churches, schools, and other organizations, and we need to create speaker forums where organizations can come and make it clear that such crimes will not be tolerates. It is the willingness of the community to make it happen, and we need to bring that willingness through education and showing support.
Regarding the police force specifically, do you intend to stress sensitivity training for police, especially considering the tumultuous relationship nature of the relationship between citizens and the police as its been unfolding across the U.S.?
I think that is very important and that is the key. We need to have programs for our taskforces to understand the various aspects of diverse and ethnic backgrounds and cultures. I think that sensitivity training is a key part of that.
Do you have any hobbies or pastimes that you’d care to share?
I was an Indian classical dancer before and that is something close to my heart. I would like to see [Indian] arts and culture proliferate in the U.S. and for people to develop an appreciation.