Click to play videoFords (New Jersey): Gujaratis living in the US maybe strong supporters of a right wing politician like Narendra Modi but their politics in America is of a different colour.
Groups like Support Gujarat and Overseas Friends of the BJP had launched a long-distance campaign to get the BJP re-elected in Gujarat in December 2007. But while those polls are over, another election looms large over these Gujaratis in America – the New Jersey primaries on February 5.
And while those gathered in New Jersey may be right wing in their political inclinations regarding India, here they prefer the Democrats, especially liberal candidates like Hillary Clinton.
“It has been a pro-Gujarati party and that’s why we have been supporting Democrats for years. They haven’t given us a chance to believe otherwise,” member of Support Gujarat Sunil Nayak said.
While Modi and the BJP have been identified with communal politics at home, ironically many of his supporters in the United States are against the Republican Party because of their fear of the Christian right.
“To take an extreme religious right wing point of view is not right for this country. That is not looking forward but looking back to the 19th Century,” a Modi supporter Prakash Shah said.
The majority of these Gujarati supporters of Modi are likely to vote for Clinton in the crucial primaries.
While the Gujarati community thronged here to support a hardline Chief Minister in their home state in India, they take a much softer line when it comes to their political preferences for the New Jersey primary.
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