Published Friday, June 23, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News


Indian entrepreneurs flex political muscle
BY BEN STOCKING

Mercury News

Leaders of Silicon Valley's Indian business community, who have enjoyed spectacular success in the high-tech world, will assert their growing clout in a new arena tonight: presidential politics.

They will do so as only mega-rich entrepreneurs can, dropping $50,000 a couple to dine with Vice President Al Gore. They will gather in the San Francisco penthouse of Sabeer Bhatia, the 31-year-old whiz kid who founded Hotmail Corp., a free Internet e-mail company that he sold for $400 million.

The event signals a political coming of age for the Bay Area's Indian community, which isn't yet known for its political activism. A handful of leading Indo-American entrepreneurs have hosted fundraisers for local congressional candidates, and several played major roles in organizing an event for Gov. Gray Davis early in his campaign. One held a fundraiser for Gore in April, but that was not an Indian-only affair.

Tonight's dinner marks the Indian community's most dramatic foray into the realm of presidential politics. And no political event they have organized so far could match the splash of raising more than $500,000 -- the expected take from tonight's dinner -- in one evening, from just 18 guests.

``The Indians are spreading their wings,'' said Kanwal Rekhi, an Indo-American entrepreneur and investor who plans to attend the event with his wife, Ann. ``The political parties are beginning to discover that Indians have a desire to participate, and they are beginning to tap us.''

Bhatia, the host of tonight's event, can't vote. He is a green card holder, a permanent legal resident of the United States, but he hasn't yet become a citizen. Legal residents, however, can contribute to candidates and parties.

Nonetheless, he likes Al Gore. And he wants the presidential contender to hear the concerns of the valley's Indian entrepreneurs, who are very worried that the high-tech industry won't be able to find enough workers if the U.S. government doesn't allow more skilled immigrants into the country. And they are also eager to see the United States forge closer ties with India.


`Natural partners'

``We are natural partners, natural allies,'' Bhatia said. ``We are both democracies, we are both predominantly English-speaking, and there is such a strong business relationship, particularly between Silicon Valley and India.''

Bhatia started with a list of about 50 potential Bay Area guests and called anyone he thought might attend. ``I would say there are at least 100 people of Indian origin who could afford a $50,000 dinner with just a day's notice,'' Bhatia said.

Among them is Suhas Patil, a Cupertino resident and founder of Cirrus Logic.

Patil, a political independent, immigrated to the United States in 1965 and became a citizen 10 years ago. ``The judge who swore us in said, `It's not only your right to participate in politics, it's your responsibility.' And I think we are rising up to our responsibility.''

Patil strongly supports Gore. But at least one or two of the guests expected at tonight's dinner, including Rekhi, are thinking of voting for GOP candidate George W. Bush. They wanted the chance to bend Gore's ear, and they figured this was their best chance to do it.

Among the other guests are Gaurav Dhillon, the CEO of Informatica; Anil Godhwani, the founder of Atweb; Shailesh Mehta, the CEO and chairman of Providian Bank; Vish Akella, an early executive at Cisco Systems; and Rama Ayasola, a co-founder of Vicinity Corp.


No clear affiliations

No official statistics are available to measure the political affiliations of Indo-Americans, but leaders of the community say its members seem equally likely to register as Republicans, Democrats or independents.

Tonight's dinner is one of just three Gore fundraisers being organized in the Bay Area today by the Democratic National Committee. Gore is also scheduled to appear at an Atherton luncheon with Silicon Valley executives and at a gala in the Hyatt-Embarcadero in San Francisco featuring rock stars David Crosby and Stephen Stills, as well as actor Sean Penn.

In all, Gore is expected to raise $2 million, according to Joel Hyatt, a professor at Stanford University's business school and a finance chairman of the Democratic Party. ``It's a great day,'' Hyatt said. ``To do $2 million in a single day is very, very good. It doesn't happen that often.''

Bush raised about $4 million in Silicon Valley on Monday.

The DNC didn't bill tonight's fundraiser as an event for the Indian community, Hyatt said. ``It's not done by community, it's done by host. Sabeer Bhatia is inviting his friends, and they happen to have a common interest in their heritage and in India.''

Ray Sullivan, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, said the Texas governor has a program called ``The American Dreamers,'' which is aimed at attracting support from a variety of immigrant and ethnic groups. But the Texas governor has not held any fundraisers attended by members of just one ethnic group, Sullivan said.


`Don't segment events'

``We have individuals working with those communities to encourage citizens to become involved in the grass-roots and finance efforts of the campaign,'' Sullivan said. ``But as a rule, we don't segment our events by ethnic groups. We'd have a rally or a fundraiser and invite everyone.''

``We recognize that Indian-Americans, Asian-Americans and other groups have contributed mightily to the economy in Silicon Valley and across the country, and we certainly want their support,'' he said.

According to a 1998 study conducted by AnnaLee Saxenian, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley, Indian entrepreneurs headed 774 Silicon Valley companies. The number has almost certainly grown since then.

As some of the more successful Indian entrepreneurs shift their gaze from business to politics, they realize that their community is too small to exert much influence through raw numbers at the voting booth.

``But the great thing about American democracy is you get to vote with your jackpot,'' said Rekhi, a former Novell executive who is now the president of TiE.




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Contact Ben Stocking at bstocking@sjmercury.com or (408) 278-3439.