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At the hub of the election campaign of Presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton is Indian American Neera Tanden, the campaign
policy director. Her meteoric rise speaks of her hard work
and is an inspiration to all immigrant Indians. Pratik Khatri
reports from the US
As Hillary Rodham Clinton moves steadily to emerge as the
most popular choice in every national poll of likely 2008
Democratic presidential contenders, the New York senator’s
presidential campaign policy director Neera Tanden is busy
giving a strong profile to Clinton’s presidential campaign.
And she has all reasons to bag credit for doing a good job,
if Hillary’s popularity among voters is any indicator
to go by.
This second generation Indian has not landed this part out
of the blue, she has had an impressive career graph, and Tanden
did start young . She began her career back in 1988 as a volunteer
for the then Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis’ presidential
campaign. At the young age of 18 when most of her peers were
probably still figuring out what they wanted to do in life,
Tanden was busy playing a precinct leader and she encouraged
all of the young people in the audience to get similarly involved.
Neera Tanden got her undergraduate degree from University
Of California , Los Angeles , and went on to graduate in law
from Yale in 1996. A sound academic beginning was bound to
take her places, and Tanden did go places - she served as
the senior vice president for Academic Affairs at the Center
for American Progress. Prior to joining the Center, she was
Legislative Director for Senator Hillary Clinton and she handled
both domestic and foreign policy for the Senator. Before that
she was the senior vice president for Domestic Policy for
the Center for American Progress. Tanden also served as the
Issues Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee. She worked on educational accountability standards
and fiscal equity issues as senior policy advisor to the Chancellor
of the New York City Schools, Harold Levy. Previous to that
she was the deputy campaign manager and policy director for
the senate campaign of Hillary Clinton. Neera also served
in the White House under President Clinton as the senior policy
advisor to the First Lady and associate director in the Domestic
Policy Council where she managed children and family issues
for the President, including childcare, early learning and
after school.
Tanden’s commitment to public policy and political process
stems from her own experiences while she was growing up. On
various occasions she has acknowledged that her familial experience
brought her close to sensing the importance of public policy.
She recently said in an interview that there was a time when
they were able to continue in the country since there are
policies and programmes which help people get out of difficult
situations. Tanden acknowledges that what the government does
can have a huge impact on the people. She relates this to
her experience of working for the Clintons, attributing them
to be people who are really committed to public service.
Speaking in an interview for Little India she observes, “I
really had experiences where I saw the worth of what government
does - welfare, food stamps, housing vouchers. Regardless,
other Indian Americans still have experiences regarding immigration,
taxes, and the education system, trying to have good schools
for their children. I think it's critical that Indian Americans
get involved in the political process, no matter what their
political views are. The laws of our country are going to
affect everyone, including Indian Americans”.
Tanden recently appeared on a web-chat along with other women
members of Hillary’s campaign team, where she talked
of her reasons to be supportive of Hillary Clinton’s
candidature for the Presidential run. “I have a four
year old daughter and an almost two year old son and I also
try to get home for dinner. For me and millions of other women
it is hard to balance work and family. It helps to have a
great, understanding husband. But every time that I feel pangs
of guilt that I am not at home with my children, I think about
how important it will be to my daughter when Hillary is president.
And what a role model Hillary will be to her,” says Tanden.
Ask her why and she reasons, “I think if Hillary becomes
the first woman president of the country, it will instill
a great deal of confidence among girls all ages that there
is nothing they can’t achieve.” Talking of her own
role models while she was growing up, Tanden recalls that
as a fifth grade student she idolised the first woman lawyer
of the country.
Talking of her responsibilities as the Policy Director for
Clinton’s Presidential Campaign she says, “I look
after the policy development process, which deals with issues
like universal health care; child care; and education. Hillary
tried to get universal health care passed in the early 90s,
and it didn’t pass. But she kept fighting, and as a result,
she helped create the State Children’s Health Insurance
Program, which has provided health insurance to millions of
children. She is fighting to lower health care costs through
the expanded use of health information technology. This is
something she can get done in the Senate, but I want to be
clear that she’ll pass universal health care as president.
I may be more aware of the concerns Americans may have about
health care, child care, education, and insuring that Hillary’s
proposals respond to these concerns”.
Tanden keeps an eye on the happenings in Indian politics as
well. However, when asked if there were someone in particular
on the Indian political scene, she maintains a politically
correct mum, as she says answering this one would involve
foreign policy issues she would rather steer clear of.
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