Today we are here in a moment of unity in our state without ill will to say it is time to remove the flag from our capitol grounds,” said Haley, who is the state’s first non-white governor.
WASHINGTON – Growing outrage against a slavery-era Confederate flag, artfully channeled by South Carolina’s governor Nikki Haley, nee Nimrata Randhawa, following last week’s racist-terrorist attack in Charleston, has pitch-forked the Indian-American politician into being talked up as a potential Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2016.
The flag, seen by many as a symbol of the slavery-supporting confederate states that were defeated in the American Civil War, has long been a red rag for much of the United States.
But many southern states, and individuals who are either outright racist or unfeeling about the memory it evokes, continue to fly it. Some argue that it is symbol of Southern ancestry and heritage, and evocative of a distinct cultural tradition, not a racist red rag.
But following the discovery that the young white man who massacred nine black church-goers in a racist-terrorist attack was in thrall of a Confederate flag, anguished calls have resumed to outlaw it.
On Monday, Nikki Haley, a US-born Sikh-turned Christian who has transitioned into a Republican politician in a southern state that has transcended its slavery-era divisions, carefully joined the chorus.
“Today we are here in a moment of unity in our state without ill will to say it is time to remove the flag from our capitol grounds,” said Haley, who is the state’s first non-white governor, flanked by a diverse group of South Carolina politicians who also represent the state’s changing demographics.
South Carolina incidentally was the first of the 11 Southern states to secede from the Union to form the Confederate states.
“This flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state,” she added, seeking not to alienate a large white constituency that does not see the flag as a racist symbol. The remarks were seen by some as a push towards being on the Republican ticket in the 2016 presidential ticket.
“Her carefully written speech, recognizing that the flag means different things to different people, elevated her as a potential vice-presidential nominee in some people’s eyes and offered political cover to the Republicans running to lead the GOP ticket,” the journal Politico noted.
Haley has just begun her second term as South Carolina’s governor, and she appears to have much better ratings within the party than Bobby Jindal, who is already on a 12-person Republican jamboree duking it out for the party nomination.
Jindal is seen as more conservative and evangelical than Haley, who identifies herself as a Christian, but attends both Methodist and Sikh services, and who has not disowned her heritage like Jindal has.
Jindal, who has lately said he does not want to be identified as an Indian-American, has also alienated the very community that supported his initial rise in American politics.
While most Republican presidential aspirants and leaders, including Jeb Bush and South Carolina’s own Lindsey Graham have called for folding up the Confederate flag, Jindal is among those conservatives (along with Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum among others) who took the guarded position and said it is up to the state to decide.
