siliconindia.com: "'I started by giving Rs.10,000 ($220) each to the 43 farmer families who had committed suicides. They had lost confidence in themselves and in the government.' His wife, Shuchee, an endocrinologist who also had a successful career in New York, returned to India and started a practice to tend to children and the poor.
'We did not work for recognition. But it was noticed. Then on March 31 on the last day for filing nominations, I got a ticket from the Congress to run for the Lok Sabha from Nizamabad,' Yaskhi says."
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
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http://www.madhuyaskhi.com/pressroom/Today_21_Jun_04.htm
After giving up his green card to return and provide support to poor farmers in Andhra Pradesh, the New York lawyer finds himself catapulted into the Lok Sabha and adjusting to public life in India
By Lakshmi Iyer
When 43 year-old Madhusudhan Yaskhi turned up in Parliament in his regular shirt and trousers, he found himself stalled at every step. The successful New York lawyer, who returned to settle in India and last month got elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from Nizamatmd on a Congress seat, hadn't realized how important the kurta-pyjama was to being a politician in Delhi. At every entry point, the security asked him Lo display his identity card and he was not even allowed to speak at the Congress Party in Parliament meeting because he was not dressed like the others.
Yaskhi was perhaps a trifle ruffled by the sartorial demands of political office, but what led him into politics was something that shook him profoundly. Following media reports of farmers committing suicide in his native Andhra Pradesh, Yaskhi had. along with a group of Non- Resident Indians (NRIS), adopted 52 families in Machareddy Mandal in Nizamabad district-an area that had the highest number of suicidal deaths.
He gave out Rs 10,000 in cash to each of the affected families and undertook to educate 55 children, with the annual expenses per child working out to Its 1,200. He also got a US-trained psychiatrist to counsel the farmers to bring them out of depression and guided the men to alternate sources of employment. These steps brought comfort and confidence to the farmers at a time when the district administration was apathetic and the chief minister
demands on him. "I was told caste identity was important, so Goud is now part of my name," he says.
The question everyone asks Yaskhi, however, is why did he not remain like other wealthy NRIS with bleeding hearts-doling out dollars for a worthy cause in India while continuing to mint more in America? What factors pitch forked him into politics? "Our work at Machareddy Mandal," says the Delhi University law graduate who has for the past 13 years been providing legal assistance to expatriates in the US on immigration and business investment.
GRUDGING SUPPORT: Yaskhi's wife, Shuchee, and their two daughters
In one year, Yaskhi's work high- lighted everything that was wrong with Naidu's much-hyped, hi-tech model of governance. As an NRI, perhaps, he had a greater legitimacy in calling the TDP leader's bluff. Naturally, after this, Yaskhi couldn't have remained outside the political system. His entry, however, was entirely unplanned. When the elections were announced, the TDP was the first party to approach him
D. Srinivas was also from Nizamabad district. But then party veterans raised a storm, alleging he had bought his way into politics. Yaskhi denies this but party circles indicate that he picked up the election expenses of all the seven legislators in his Lok Sabha constituency. Nevertheless, the intra-Congress feud gave a handle to the TDP. His rival ran a "me poor, he rich" campaign which, however, failed to click. Yaskhi won with the third highest margin of votes in the state. Not because of Machareddy Mandal- falls in the neighboring Medak Lok Sabha seat. "They voted me for my smile," he says, somewhat self-assuredly.
Yaskhi is aware that his election does not automatically solve the problem of Andhra farmers or his constituency. In fact, over a 100 farmers have killed themselves in spite of a change in government. There have been 11 deaths in Yaskhi's constituency itself. "The only difference we've made is in our response," he says. Much to the annoyance of local MLAs, he visited the bereaved families and geared up the district machinery to publicise the new measures being undertaken to amelio-rate the misery of the farmers. "We have a long way to go," he admits.
But the most difficult, part has been to persuade his reluctant. family-his endocrinologist, wife Shuchee and two daughters-to return to India, He is anxious that his public life does not affect his time with his family. "After the elections, my daughter got
"I was told class identity is important so Goud, my (backward) class name, is now part of my nomenclature"
Chandrababu Naidu appeared insular. To tile credit of this NRI effort, only three suicide deaths have since been reported in the region.
However, not content to provide succour from the outside, Yaskhi sold his New Jersey house, initiated the process to surrender his greencard, left his firm in the care of his partners and returned to his home state and politics. Besides the sartorial statement politics required of him, ho was also asked to change his name. Acting on the advise by CWC member Ghulam Nabhi Azad to use his backward caste name as part of his nomenclature. Yaskhi is resigned to the
with a ticket, which he promptly turned down. "1 couldn't contest, on a TDP ticket and my friends in the US were appaled that 1 was standing on a Congress ticket. They said it was a losing party. The NRI community there is pro-BJP, pro-TDP," says Yaskhi who once worked as junior lawyer to veteran People's Union of Civil Liberties leader K.G. Kannabiran.
Getting a. Congress ticket wasn't easy for him either. He didn't know any one of the big worthies in the party like Azad, Ahmed Patel or Ambika Soni. What helped him was the fart that the PCC President
me to watch the Spykids-III DVD) with her. She was very upset when she found me asleep behind the special glasses we had to wear," he rues. Shuchee admits that she didn't want him to join politics, "I did not go on a door-to-door campaign for the first week," she says. But Yaskhi is determined to keep his home out of bounds to the public with separate offices, "Shuchee freaked out when someone walked into our bedroom," he recalls. He is still learning about public life in India. The sartorial change was only the first step.
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