You could potentially have the first female president, or [jokingly] the first mentally disturbed POTUS, the ace Indian American lawyer says.
PHILADELPHIA: The presidential contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump may turn out to be “a watershed election in American, and even global history,” prominent Indian American attorney Ajay Raju said.
“On one hand, we could potentially have the first female President of the United States,” the Chairman and CEO of Philadelphia-based law firm Dilworth Paxson said in an interview with The American Bazaar, on the sidelines of the recent Democratic National Convention in his adoptive hometown. “And on the other,” Raju continued, laughing, “we could be looking at our first mentally disturbed candidate.”
Raju, the first and, as of this writing, the only Indian American to head a major US law firm, criticized Trump’s incendiary statements throughout the 2016 campaign. “We are in this climate where a candidate purports to lead with a kind of rhetoric that dissolves any attempt at thoughtful discourse into bile. Trump has obviously alienated America’s ethnic and religious minorities, but he’s also done tremendous damage to a once proud political tradition and to critical transnational relationships,” he said.
As a case in point, Raju referred to a Trump-supporting Super PAC television ad that used sound bites from a Clinton speech in India in which the then Secretary of State stated that outsourcing was not going to go away.
The Republican is spoiling relations with “countries who otherwise were our allies, India included, Indians included, discounting the fact that many of the successful new companies that have emerged in the U.S. in recent years have been founded by immigrants, largely by Indian immigrants in Silicon Valley and other tech centers,” Raju said.
The Philadelphia lawyer said that, “whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, you have to recognize that,” the election is going to be about, “whether or not we are a country that is inclusive, or a country that reverts to the kind of discrimination and exclusion that marked the darkest points in our national past, and which so many fought so mightily to overcome.”
Raju added that “depending on who wins, this will be the scenario for the next four or potentially eight years, at the very least.”
The Philadelphian changed his party affiliation from Republican to registered Independent a few years ago. Switching allegiance was partly “a silent protest” over the hijacking of the party “by a handful of ideologues who distorted the real, honorable values of the party into what we’re now, sadly, seeing embodied in Donald Trump,” he said.
Speaking about the Democratic Convention, he said it was “a historical moment” for Philadelphia. “We hosted Pope Francis last September,” he said. “We had the RNC Convention in 2000. And for us to be on stage again, this is a global show.”
Asked whether he has any plans to run for office — as has been reported in the Philadelphia media — Raju said, “I can honestly say that I’ve never said that I would run for office, but I seem to have the scent of a politician about me. It is something that I was born with, so I suppose people make assumptions that I may have political ambitions.”
Describing public service as “the daily rent that one pays to serve humanity,” Raju pointed out that he “is actively involved with our communities here, both in terms of civic philanthropy as well as business leadership.” Several years ago, Raju and his wife Pamela started a family foundation dedicated to re-establishing Philadelphia as a global force in policy, commerce and culture,” according to its website. In the years since its inception, the Raju Foundation has built a civic incubator for Philadelphia’s next generation of leaders, forged a new arts and culture trade route with India, promoted activist journalism to combat the social and political challenges his city faces, and endowed a program to instill engagement in world affairs among millennial Philadelphians.
“I’ll leave it to others to speculate as to whether or not I have a political future,” he said. “And if there is one, then let that be God’s decision. What I try to keep in mind is that you never need to wait around for a chance to serve. Service is something we’re all capable of, regardless of our title, resources and notoriety. I’m humbled by the opportunities that have presented themselves to me to serve my community. And for now, the role I’m in is the best role I can play.”