All The President’s ‘Desi’ Men And Women

WASHINGTON – AsNisha Desai Biswal officiallybecame Washington’s firstIndian-American pointpersonfor South and Central Asia lastweek, her boss mentioned thatshe is known as “somebodywho speaks softly and carries abig stick”.But whether it was withher soft speech or her big stick,Biswal’s efforts to bring peacebetween the feuding begums ofBangladesh even before she wasformally sworn in won praisefrom U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry.“This week in Bangladesh,Nisha showed how she nevermisses a chance to speak upor stand up for America’svalues,” Kerry said, recallingher meetings with both PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina andopposition leader Khaleda Zia.“She spoke forcefully aboutthe need for leaders to riseabove partisan differences andfind a peaceful way towards theballot box,” said Kerry, whofirst met Biswal in 2004 whenshe was volunteering on hispresidential campaign.Kerry called Biswal’s storya “great American” story “ofa woman who left a small townin India at age 6 to come toAmerica and now becomes oneof the most important leadersin the Department of State asAssistant Secretary of State forSouth and Central Asia”.But it’s now becoming anincreasingly common storyas President Barack Obamahas turned to more andmore accomplished Indian-Americans to take up keyjobs from arts to science tocommerce to diplomacy.Biswal herself for thelast three years has served asassistant administrator forAsia at the U.S. Agency forInternational Development(USAID), which is headed by Rajiv Shah, the highest-rankingIndian American in the Obamaadministration.Days in her new job, Biswalin her own words “stole”another Indian-American AtulKeshap, who had done a stint atthe US embassy in New Delhi2005-2008, from the Asia PacificEconomic Cooperation Bureau,to be her new deputy.Just six months after hisinauguration, Obama namedVinai Thummalapally as theU.S. ambassador to Belize.Son of a retired scientist whoworked for Andhra PradeshForensic Sciences Laboratory,he is the first Indian Americanambassador in U.S. history.In September, Obamanominated Puneet Talwar, anoted Indian-American MiddleEast policy specialist to a keydiplomatic post as the assistantsecretary of state for politicalmilitary affairs.In the Pentagon, the highestranking Indian Americanis Vikram J. Singh, deputyassistant secretary of defencefor South and Southeast Asia.He serves as the principaladvisor on development andimplementation of defencestrategies and plans for theregion, including India.Obama, who at two overtwo dozen has more Indian-Americans serving in hisadministration than any of hispredecessors, has appointed atleast ten from the communitysince his re-election lastNovember.