Hillary Clinton: Mind the gaffe

Washington, Jan. 7: With presidential and congressional elections in the US only 10 months away, Indian American Republicans cannot help chuckling over a rare faux pas by New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in cracking a poor joke about Mahatma Gandhi.

Speaking at a fund-raiser last weekend for the Democratic Party’s Senate candidate in Missouri, Nancy Farmer, the former First Lady joked that Mahatma Gandhi was a guy who “ran a gas station down in St. Louis”, the state’s best known city.

Hardly had she finished the sentence and the polite, but subdued laughter among her audience subsided, Hillary realised that she had put her foot in her mouth.

She hastily added: “No, Mahatma Gandhi was a great leader of the 20th century.” She then used a quote from the Father of the Indian Nation to define Farmer’s seemingly hopeless campaign against the formidable incumbent Republican Senator from Missouri, Kit Bond.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win,” she quoted the Mahatma.

Hillary’s joke about Gandhi, however, drew unfavourable comments, not from Indians, but from non-Indian Americans, albeit those representing Indi-an-American bodies or organisations dedicated to non- violence.

Chris Dumm, a spokesman for the Washington-based Indian American Center for Political Awareness, was quoted in the US media as saying: “It is an off-colour comment, one that is certainly upsetting.”

Michelle Naef, administrator of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, in Memphis, Tennessee, said: “I don’t think she was, in any way, trying to demean Mahatma Gandhi. To be generous to her, I would say it was a poor attempt at humour. Perhaps I am overly sensitive, but I find it offensive when people use stereotypes in that way.”

The origin of her comment lies in the American stereotype of certain ethnic groups running gas stations.

Hillary followed up the damage control on Monday when she issued a statement saying: “I have admired the work and life of Mahatma Gandhi and have spoken publicly about that many times. I truly regret if a lame attempt at humour suggested otherwise.”

Republicans, who have envied former President Bill Clinton’s charismatic ability to raise millions in election funds from Indian Americans, are hoping that Hillary’s faux pas may slow down the love affair between the Clintons and India and Indian Americans.

Apart from funds, Indian Americans generally tend to vote for Democrats. Hillary is a bete noir for Republicans, who suspect that she has an eye on the presidential nomination of her party in 2008. They are happy to use any stick to beat her with.

For this reason, she carefully practises what she says and does and her indiscreet remark about Gandhi is one of the rare missteps since the former First Lady entered active politics.