'Can't Is Not An Option' tells the story of Indian-American Nikki Haley, and her journey into the political fold of America, writes Utkal Mohanty.
Can't Is Not an Option — My American Story is the memoir of Nikki Haley, governor of South Carolina. At 40, she is the youngest among current governors in the USA. She is the first woman to serve as governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country. Her story should be a gripping narrative and a revealing read, which it is in the early parts of the book, until it gets caught up in the mundane details of American electoral politics.
But first things first. Nikki was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa to Punjabi Sikh parents.
Nikki's father came to Vancouver to do his PhD and later moved on to USA as a teacher in Voorhees College in South Carolina. The Randhawas cut quite unusual figures in South Carolina of 1969. Dr Randhawa's colleagues were overstating things when they warned him that "he might get shot before he got his first paycheck." But the Randhawas had to face serious racial discrimination — from the highly unreasonable conditions they had to comply with to get a house to having policemen called in to check on them while buying vegetables. Nikki's first awareness of her peculiar situation came when she was given a consolation prize in a children's pageant because she could not take part in the actual competition which had only two categories — Blacks and Whites. The only way the family — 'the original six' they called themselves (Nikki, her parents, and her three siblings) — coped with those trying times was by clinging to one another tightly, for survival. They also worked hard, were respectful to neighbours and tried to fit in.
And fit in they did, with her mother opening a gift store, which grew to a million-dollar business and Nikki meeting Michael Haley while in business school, falling in love and persuading her parents to let them marry. Though she had become a Christian by now, they had both Christian and Sikh wedding ceremonies out of consideration to her parents. While Michael joined the South Carolina National Guard, Nikki went on to join her parents' business after a brief stint at Charlotte, a recycling company. Like any good small business woman, she joined the chamber of commerce and got involved with a group called National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).
It was through her activities in this group that she became aware of her political views and a friend suggested that she should run for the State House of Representatives. Now, what were the political views she believed in? She believed in protecting the rights and freedom of the people, she believed in the amazing survival skills of small businesses. And she believed that everyone should live within their means and that the government shouldn't be exempt from that. This, according to her political mentors, made her a natural Republican.
Starting out as a rank outsider, she went on to win. Once in the House, she tried to break the good old boys' club that it had become, with her campaign for measures like putting all voting on record (instead of voice votes where it was not possible to know who had voted for what). This made her unpopular among legislators and she was generally given a tough time. Pondering over her political future, she met with Governor Sanford to discuss possibilities. He suggested that she should run for governor in the forthcoming state elections. Governor Sanford had opposed President Obama's stimulus package tooth and nail in 2009 and shared Nikki's fiscal conservatism. His encouragement made her take the plunge. The four-way race got nasty as days went by.
Just a few days before the voting day, she got a jolt of her life when Governor Sanford, her chief endorser, was embroiled in a damaging controversy over his secret trysts with his Argentinean mistress. She fought hard to overcome such setbacks and managed to be endorsed by Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. She captured 49 per cent of the vote in the Republican Primary, necessitating a runoff which she won handsomely. Eventually, she was elected governor in 2010 over the Democratic candidate, Vincent Sheheen, polling 51 per cent to his 47 per cent, bringing this Indian-American fairy tale to its logical conclusion.
For Indian readers looking for insights into interracial or intercultural relations in a state like South Carolina or the USA in general, there aren't many, apart from brief mentions in the early pages about the difficulties of fitting in as a 'Brown' in a community segregated into Blacks and Whites. If you are looking for answers to questions like what kind of mindset makes possible the recent gurudwara shooting, you won't find any either. After the early segments, it is all about selling her conservative agenda and detailing the nitty-gritty of her electoral battles. Trying to justify the tagline 'My American Story', it is more about how she fit in and made good in the American society.
Can't Is Not an Option — My American Story is the memoir of Nikki Haley, governor of South Carolina. At 40, she is the youngest among current governors in the USA. She is the first woman to serve as governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country. Her story should be a gripping narrative and a revealing read, which it is in the early parts of the book, until it gets caught up in the mundane details of American electoral politics.
But first things first. Nikki was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa to Punjabi Sikh parents.
Nikki's father came to Vancouver to do his PhD and later moved on to USA as a teacher in Voorhees College in South Carolina. The Randhawas cut quite unusual figures in South Carolina of 1969. Dr Randhawa's colleagues were overstating things when they warned him that "he might get shot before he got his first paycheck." But the Randhawas had to face serious racial discrimination — from the highly unreasonable conditions they had to comply with to get a house to having policemen called in to check on them while buying vegetables. Nikki's first awareness of her peculiar situation came when she was given a consolation prize in a children's pageant because she could not take part in the actual competition which had only two categories — Blacks and Whites. The only way the family — 'the original six' they called themselves (Nikki, her parents, and her three siblings) — coped with those trying times was by clinging to one another tightly, for survival. They also worked hard, were respectful to neighbours and tried to fit in.
And fit in they did, with her mother opening a gift store, which grew to a million-dollar business and Nikki meeting Michael Haley while in business school, falling in love and persuading her parents to let them marry. Though she had become a Christian by now, they had both Christian and Sikh wedding ceremonies out of consideration to her parents. While Michael joined the South Carolina National Guard, Nikki went on to join her parents' business after a brief stint at Charlotte, a recycling company. Like any good small business woman, she joined the chamber of commerce and got involved with a group called National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).
It was through her activities in this group that she became aware of her political views and a friend suggested that she should run for the State House of Representatives. Now, what were the political views she believed in? She believed in protecting the rights and freedom of the people, she believed in the amazing survival skills of small businesses. And she believed that everyone should live within their means and that the government shouldn't be exempt from that. This, according to her political mentors, made her a natural Republican.
Starting out as a rank outsider, she went on to win. Once in the House, she tried to break the good old boys' club that it had become, with her campaign for measures like putting all voting on record (instead of voice votes where it was not possible to know who had voted for what). This made her unpopular among legislators and she was generally given a tough time. Pondering over her political future, she met with Governor Sanford to discuss possibilities. He suggested that she should run for governor in the forthcoming state elections. Governor Sanford had opposed President Obama's stimulus package tooth and nail in 2009 and shared Nikki's fiscal conservatism. His encouragement made her take the plunge. The four-way race got nasty as days went by.
Just a few days before the voting day, she got a jolt of her life when Governor Sanford, her chief endorser, was embroiled in a damaging controversy over his secret trysts with his Argentinean mistress. She fought hard to overcome such setbacks and managed to be endorsed by Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. She captured 49 per cent of the vote in the Republican Primary, necessitating a runoff which she won handsomely. Eventually, she was elected governor in 2010 over the Democratic candidate, Vincent Sheheen, polling 51 per cent to his 47 per cent, bringing this Indian-American fairy tale to its logical conclusion.
For Indian readers looking for insights into interracial or intercultural relations in a state like South Carolina or the USA in general, there aren't many, apart from brief mentions in the early pages about the difficulties of fitting in as a 'Brown' in a community segregated into Blacks and Whites. If you are looking for answers to questions like what kind of mindset makes possible the recent gurudwara shooting, you won't find any either. After the early segments, it is all about selling her conservative agenda and detailing the nitty-gritty of her electoral battles. Trying to justify the tagline 'My American Story', it is more about how she fit in and made good in the American society.