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Indian American on Bush's advisory panel

United States President George W Bush has asked a prominent Indian American, Florida cardiologist 'Zach' Zachariah, to serve on a commission that advises him on Asian American interests.

A staunch Republican, a major fundraiser for the party and a close friend of the Bush family, Zachariah is the only Indian American among the 14 people Bush has asked to serve on the Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The commission advises the president on the Asian American community's concerns and interacts with the federal government on a whole gamut of issues ranging from health to business.

But Shamina Singh, former executive director of the White House initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, which staffs and co-ordinates the commission's work, rued that Bush had invited only one Indian American to join the commission.

She said the 1.6 million-strong Indian American community, which recorded the largest increase among Asian American groups in the 2000 census, should have been represented by at least two, if not more, people.

Former president Bill Clinton's commission included hotel chain owner Mukesh (Mike) Patel and information technology entrepreneur Vinod Dham, who is credited with inventing the Pentium chip for Intel.

Zachariah said White House officials had called him "more than four months ago and said the president was really keen I serve on this commission".

After he sent in the required documents for scrutiny, "the White House called and said 'you've been cleared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and everyone else'. I should be getting my letter of appointment very soon," Zachariah told the Indo-Asian News Service.

Administration officials and Republican Party sources said Zachariah's appointment might be the first step towards grooming him to be the next US surgeon general, a post for which his name has been doing the rounds on the Republican circuit.

Sources said the hold-up to Zachariah's nomination is the incumbent, Dr David Satcher, a Clinton appointee whose term ends in February 2002. The Bush White House, they said, is reluctant to push Satcher out for several reasons, including the fact that he is an African American.

Zachariah received his medical training from the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune, India, and did his post-graduate training at St Joseph's Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey.

He has performed about 12,000 cardio-catheterisations and over 5,000 cardiac interventional procedures and been published extensively in medical and scientific journals.

Zachariah has practised medicine privately in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, since 1976, where he serves as director of cardiology at the Holy Cross Hospital. Since 1984, he has also served as adjunct professor of medicine at the University of Miami's School of Medicine. Currently, he is vice-chairman of the Florida Board of Medicine and is expected to take over as chairman within two months.

Indo-Asian News Service

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