Will Nikki Haley be the first Indian-American VP nominee?

New York: America is in the grip of all things Nikki Randhawa Haley at the moment. A link posted by the Drudge Report indicates that Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney has placed South Carolina Governor Haley on his shortlist of potential running mates. In addition to the vice presidential talk, Haley has also struck a chord with television audiences by revealing more about her childhood experiences, spelled out in her powerful new book Can’t Is Not an Option about growing up Indian in a small South Carolina town. “We were the first Indian family ever to live in Bamberg, in a time and place that only knew black and white, and we didn’t fit either category. We weren’t dark enough to be black or pale enough to be white, we were brown. That difference, our difference was an inescapable fact,” Haley, 40, writes in her 245-page autobiography which released this week. [caption id=“attachment_268649” align=“alignright” width=“380” caption=“Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has Nikki Haley in his sights as a VP candidate. Reuters”]  [/caption] “We coped the only way we know how, we went into survival mode. We clung to one another tightly. We worked hard. We were respectful to our neighbors. We tried to fit in.” Speaking on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” Haley was disarmingly candid about how as a child she was always asked to “pick sides” about whether she was black or white. “I am neither,” Haley once yelled to a girl who was harassing her during a kick ball game in third grade. “I’m brown.” “My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was born in that town, but we lived in a small southern town where they didn’t understand us and we didn’t know how to fit in with them,” said Haley, explaining how she was disqualified from a beauty pageant because the judges didn’t know whether to place her in the category for black girls or white girls. More alarmingly, Haley told CNN; “My father and I went to a produce stand and immediately two police were called in and we had to deal with that situation.” Haley’s small, conservative, monochromatic town has obviously come a long way since her childhood in the 1970s, and now boasts a billboard that proclaims “Proud Home of Nikki Haley.” Haley made history when she became South Carolina’s first female and minority Indian-American governor. Haley who was in New York promoting her book hopes her story will encourage more people, especially women, to seek higher office. “I mean, all of those stories while they are challenges, while they were hard, what I hope people understand is that the same town is the one that took us in, allowed me to be a part of the girl scouts. Supported my brother when he was deployed to ‘Desert Storm’ and the same town now has a sign that says ‘Proud Home of Nikki Haley’,” Haley told CNN. “The fact that she (Haley) is the daughter of Indian immigrants and she has been proud to talk about it and celebrate it has endeared her very much to us in India," said Indian ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao, who was invited to Charleston by Haley on a three-day visit. [caption id=“attachment_268655” align=“alignleft” width=“298” caption=“The jacket of Haley’s book titled, Can’t Is Not An Option. Pic credit: Sentinel”]  [/caption] Rao and Haley sat down with members of the State Ports Authority to discuss the potential of doing business with Indian companies. Haley, whose election was part of the Republican Party’s victorious wave of 2010 is a rising star in conservative politics. First elected to public office in 2004, Haley has leapt to prominence along with the Tea Party on a platform of making government less wasteful, less intrusive and more accountable to the people. Haley sees the most important part of her job as creating jobs in South Carolina. Recently, she was able to work out a deal with the unions so that they dropped their complaint with the National Labor Relations Board that halted construction of a Boeing plant in South Carolina. Both Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Haley have been suggested for vice-presidential candidates, although Haley has specifically ruled out a 2012 VP run. Haley endorsed Mitt Romney for president, and Romney quickly arranged a campaign trip through South Carolina, with Haley by his side. But Haley told The Associated Press this week that she intends to complete her four-year-term as governor. “If offered any position by Governor Romney, I would say no. The people of South Carolina gave me a chance. I have a job to do and I’m not going to leave my job for anything,” Haley told the Associated Press. Haley became South Carolina’s first female governor but she faced a vicious campaign with blogs screaming that she had committed adultery. There were two separate allegations of marital infidelity and a nasty ethnic slur from a longtime state lawmaker who called her a “raghead” because her father, a professor, is a Sikh. Haley, a mother of two, whose husband is a US army reserves officer, was grace under fire throughout the attacks. “I felt like a lot of people wanted me to discount the way I was raised,” Haley told Fox News while explaining why she wrote the book. “And that was something I would never do. I’m very proud of the way that I was raised, I’m very proud of the way that my parents raised me. But I also know that being Christian is something that’s very true to me and (husband) Michael,” added Haley. Haley’s mother Raj Randhawa comes across as quite a remarkable person in the book. She started a business in their home and, through frugality, will and creativity, built it into a multi-million-dollar clothing enterprise. Haley worked for her mother at one stage. The Democrats have accused the Republicans of stepping on women’s rights in the reproductive realm by threatening to block access to abortions. Haley is pro-life and consistently votes for bills protecting unborn fetuses. She has also voted for bills that allow abortions in circumstances where it might be necessary to save the woman’s life. “I’m strongly pro-life not because the Republicans tell me to be, but because, like I say in the book, my husband was adopted. We had difficulty having both our children. So that is where my beliefs come from,” said Haley.