Indian-origin US politician spends week posing as homeless man
Saturday, 02/08/2014
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
NEW YORK: Indian-American banker and politician Neel Kashkari, running for the post of California governor, spent a week posing as a penniless vagabond looking for a job, in an attempt to highlight the importance of jobs in the key US state’s weak economy.
The 40-year-old Republican, son of Indian immigrants from Jammu and Kashmir, is seen in a 10-minute video stopping in a thrift store in California’s Fresno city, a mini-mart and a repair shop asking for work and sleeping on park benches, a report in the New York Times said.
Kashkari is the Republican Party’s gubernatorial candidate against current Democrat Governor Jerry Brown who is running for an unprecedented fourth term as governor of California in the election on November 4.
The former investment banker and multimillionaire, had only $40 in his pocket and carried a torn backpack as he spent a week posing as a homeless man looking for a job.
In the video, released by him, Kashkari is left with no prospects for cash after five days on the streets and appears scruffy and bereft.
“The solution is simple — it’s jobs. It’s not more welfare. It’s not more food stamps. It’s jobs,” he says in his message in the video. “Everything starts with education and jobs,” Kashkari, who lives in a $10 million home in Laguna Beach, told NYT.
“We talk about temporary help, but if the bridge is a bridge to nowhere, what does it matter? There has to be land, and that land has to be a job.” He said he remained opposed to raising the minimum wage.
“Would that have helped me get a job?” he asked. “Absolutely not, it would have made it harder. We know how to rein in regulations so our businesses can grow and thrive and hire.”
