CHICAGO: The Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC), which flipped the Hindu-American vote to put Trump in the White House, held a meeting of its leadership in the Chicago area to celebrate its success, discuss and finalize its plans of expansion and its plans for the next election cycles as well as its participation in the forthcoming escalation of US India trade. The meeting held here was followed by a Press Conference.
Republican Hindu Coalition was founded by Shalli Kumar in November of 2015 under the leadership of Speaker Newt Gingrich, Party Chairman Reince Priebus, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and many other senior leaders of the Republican Party, to provide a single unified platform to build a strong, effective and respected voice in Washington and around the world. The timing was perfect for the launch of the most innovative and aggressive $10 million political campaign that resulted in a titanic shift of over one million Hindu American votes from Democrats to the Republican Party.
Founder Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar shared his vision of empowering the Hindu community to have a strong voice on the policy tables all across the world. He told the leadership that the idea for RHC was inspired by Republican Jewish Coalition and that RHC owes its success in part to RJC’s help across the board. In light of the emergence of the deep friendship between India and Israel, it is even more important for RHC and RJC to join hands and work together for peace and prosperity throughout the world.
Story of this campaign has been written in a book called “Ab Ki Baar Trump Sarkar” by a renowned author and campaign strategist James Kahr. The campaign went viral and it is estimated that over 1.2 billion people worldwide saw the campaign commercial in which an American Presidential candidate spoke in Hindi for the first time in American history. One can order hard copy of this book at the RHC website www.rhcusa.com.
Krishna Bansal, Policy and Political Director of RHC, and Vandana Jinghan, Communication Director of RHC, showed a video of the 2016 campaign titled Ab Ki Baar Trump Sarkar. They also told the leadership that RHC should be very proud that President Trump is keeping all his promises made during his campaign towards Hindu and Indian Americans and India, specifically that Hindus shall have their best friend in the White House and US will be a true friend of India.
Kumar also discussed RHC’s plans to facilitate a massive trade growth between US and India creating millions of jobs in both countries.
The trade would involve defense equipment, energy, agriculture, technology, IT, Education and training, electronics, Bollywood and other cultural activities. RHC members will play a key role in these activities from both inside and outside the government.
RHC currently has about 20,000 members in US and plans to expand its membership to over 250,000 members by 2018. The leadership at this meeting also decided to lay out a very aggressive goal of 500,000 members by the time of the next Presidential election in 2020. Formal new chapters will be opened in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Texas and California.
RHC’s policy and non-political arm also accepts membership from non-US citizens from other countries who believe in the RHC philosophy. One of its leaders came from New Delhi to join this meeting.
Republican Hindu Coalition raised over $100,000 for MacArthur in four days of notice to emerge as the largest ethnic group to be represented at the fundraiser both in terms of numbers as well as dollars.
At the leadership meeting, Kumar also shared his vision for a massive $ 4 trillion balanced trade plan between the US and India over the next decade that will bind the two largest democracies in the world as strongest allies and a plan that will create over two million new manufacturing jobs in the US and over 15 million new manufacturing jobs in India. He also stated that US and India could be great partners in fighting radical Islamic terrorism.
RHC also unveiled its plan for a massive Hindu American voter turn-out in 2018 and 2020 elections as well as raise $10 million for the 2018 campaign and $20 million for the 2020 campaign. RHC laid out its plans to engage President Trump in the 2018 elections to help gain four more Senate seats and 20 House seats from areas with large Hindu populations.
Surendra Ullal
