“We are here and We vote” a powerful message that has been PROJECT IMPACT thrust in the 2002 November election was reiterated with a Governors Election panel discussion in collaboration with SALSA of the Harvard Law school on October 22nd 2002. With the election just two weeks away, the group has been trying to reach out and mobilize the Desi community to come out and vote because in the present election scenario “every vote counts”. Mass Desi Vote is an initiative by PROJECT IMPACT, Boston to get tens and thousands of Desis to get to the polls on November 5th 2002. The group recognizes the fact that a politically aware, actively involved and election conscious Desi community can determine and shape the local, State Representative and State Senate.

To bring awareness on the issues involved, the Governor’s panel discussion was led by Paresh Patel who is the Managing Director of Sparta Group, the private investment office of Gururaj Deshpande, founder of Sycamore Networks and Cascade Communications and Sunaina Maira who is the Assistant Professor of Asian American studies in English and Anthropology and Co-Director of the undergraduate Certificate program in Asian and Asian American studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The moderator was Nishit Acharya, president of NetSAP Boston.

The discussion offered two perspectives from the panelists – Sunaina Maira spoke on various issues from the grassroots level and Paresh Patel an entrepreneur offered a different view from an economic angle and the impact that would be felt as a result of this election. Both agreed that the two candidates, Mitt Romney and Shannon O' Brien were well qualified and well informed of the issues pertaining to the South Asian community. Topics ranged from the State of the economy, Bilingual education, health care, Immigration and the post 9/11 scenario. Project Impact had in fact prepared a list of questions for the two candidates on issues pertaining to the Indian community. Some sample questions were “How would you jump start the Mass economy? Should stock options exist, the affirmative action for college admissions, the UNZ amendment regarding bilingual education, hate crimes and efforts made by the candidates to reach out to the South Asian community.

According to Project Impact “there are more than 45,000 desis in Massachusetts and 1 in every 5 Asians is a Desi. Since the election is so close and the candidates are in a hot race, there could be no better and opportune to make a difference in the present election. Vijay Sankaran, who is on the board of Project Impact, hopes that programs such as these will help bring about the political awareness and urged all those who are registered to vote to come out on November 5th and exercise their franchise.

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