Yesterday (Saturday) was the one-year anniversary of the arrests in Operation Meth Merchant:

Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the day 49 people were arrested as part of "Operation Meth Merchant," the government’s botched sting operation targeting South Asian convenience stores in northwest Georgia. Roundly criticized by attorneys, community activists, and academics, last summer’s operation has done nothing to solve the methamphetamine ("meth") problem. Instead, it has become a symbol of wasted taxpayer resources, scapegoating of a vulnerable immigrant community, and an overzealous U.S. Attorney’s office.

Despite putting some distance between itself and the DEA, NASABA still seems to be treating Meth Merchant as in issue in which its scarce resources are best spent doing the government's work of regulating the sale of Sudafed for it -- rather than challenging the government for what seems like it may well have been a rather troubling instance of racial profiling. It's a shame that a group like NASABA hasn't at the forefront of bringing these facts to light. Fortunately, other South Asian community groups and the ACLU have been.

NASABA also has invited the U.S. Attorney responsible for Meth Merchant, David Nahmias, to speak at the convention -- not to face the community, mind you, but in effect, even if perhaps not intent, as an honored guest to speak on a panel discussing a completely different subject, the USA Patriot Act. Mr. Nahmias has an interesting record. The community of South Asian American lawyers, however, are of course free to pose questions to him and the convention organizers about anything they wish, and it would be entirely appropriate for community members to do so during his panel.

My hope would be for folks concerned about these issues not to stay away from the convention, but to stay and fight, as it were -- please show up to the convention, and to that panel in particular, and pose challenging questions for Mr. Nahmias. Some ammunition for you to do so can be found here and here. And throughout the weekend to the NASABA leadership, the convention organizers, and each other. Not just for the sake of being hostile, but in a vigorous, probing, and yet respectful way. Community leaders really ought to show more accountability to the community than NASABA has shown over the past year, but it is up to the rest of us to insist upon that accountability and to build the sense of community that makes insisting upon that accountability a meaningful imperative in the first place.

Let's hope that the good folks at NASABA continue to move in the right direction -- cheers to them for listening to community (and local chapter) voices and adjusting. It seems that there still may be some distance for them to go, however.

Dear Friend,

Few things we know about NASABA, but ONE thing we didn’t know.

We know that NASABA has chapters in 25 cities in USA and Canada. As a matter of fact every city in North America that has over 10 South Asian lawyers has a NASABA Chapter.

We know that NASABA has had two wildly successful & profitable annual conferences – in Los Angeles in 2004, and in Washington, DC in 2005. Both attended by about 400 lawyers – almost one in every 12 South Asian lawyers in North America.

We know that the 3rd annual National Conference is in Atlanta on June 16 & 17th.

We know that on June 16 and 17, the Atlanta Chapter of NASABA is welcoming us with their Southern hospitality: two lunches, two dinners, 18 panels with 45 speakers and three keynote addresses. (Have you ever had Grit for breakfast?)

We know that the General Counsel of Wipro – Madhu Khatri – is coming from India to deliver one of the keynotes, and Ms. Vadlamani – the Fox Channel famed anchor is going to create an exciting evening.

We know that no NASABA National Conference is ever going to happen without a session on Bizdev, Religion, Immigration, Entertainment, Work-Life, and of course how can we forget – Outsourcing, Doing Biz in SA, and IP!

We know that over 30 law firms have paid a lot of money to sponsor the Atlanta Conference, and the conference organizers who have been working for over a year have created a fantastic website to check out – www.nasabaconvention.org

We know that their Saturday 17th night party is at some Kama Sutra lounge from 11 PM to 3 AM!

The one thing we didn’t know of course is that the world’s busiest airport in Atlanta has just finished a 5-year - $1.3 billion runaway just in time before the NASABA conference!

The Spirit of the South - famous for the HQs of Coke and CNN, 1996 Olympics, Carter Presidential Library, Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, Emory and Georgia Tech - Atlanta is also home to the 6th largest South Asian community in the U.S.

A visit to Atlanta is never complete without sensing the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi. A lawyer himself, he left his mark 8,000 miles away in Atlanta by being the source of inspiration for Martin Luther King, Jr.
King Jr. one day, heard a speech about Mahatma Gandhi, and then told his supporters why he was inspired by Gandhi.
Gandhi had won freedom for his region from British rule (1947). And he had done it in a very unusual way. From the start, he told everyone not to use violence against the British. He told them to resist the British by peaceful means only. They would march. They would sit down or lie down in the streets. They would strike. They would boycott (refuse to buy) British goods.
"Fill the jails," Gandhi said. But — never use violence. Violence only brings about more hate and more violence. Gandhi told his people to meet body force with soul force. He told them to meet hate with love. Gandhi called this "war without violence." And it helped South Asia gain its freedom.
King said, “I began to think that black Americans could use Gandhi's way to win their freedom”. Was non violence the coward's way? No, said King. It took more courage not to hit back when struck.
What an influence Gandhi had across many oceans! What an influence we lawyers can make in our everyday lives. What an influence we can be to each other, to our communities, our causes, and our countries.
What an influence we can be on NASABA, and in turn NASABA on us. An appropriate theme of the 2006 Conference.
Woody Allen once said, “90% of success is just showing up”.
So why not be successful!
See you in Atlanta in two weeks!

Be Well,

Navneet S. Chugh | Attorney, C.P.A.
The Chugh Firm, APC
Main 1.562.229.1250 | USA Cell 1.714.271.6188 | India 91.98458.52170
Los Angeles | Santa Clara | Iselin NJ | Bangalore | Chennai | www.chugh.com

Navneet, Gandhi was a lawyer that rebelled. Both he and Dr. King violated laws in the name of social justice. To invoke their names in support of this group, given its current activities with regard to Meth Merchant, is a bit off.

That said, if you're a lawyer or you love lawyers and want to try to convince South Asian lawyers who are mostly corporate, prosecutors, etc. that they should care about social justice, by all means, go for it. You could also, of course, support the other South Asian initiatives that involve the law, but for a liberal, progressive, or more radical purpose. Or start a progressive South Asian bar association ;)

Damn bar exam, yet another event that it will cause me to miss. Anyone know if NASABA has an environmental chapter? A future, but as yet unemployed, environmental advocate would like to know.

AAhhhhhhh - me busy with summer classes, and with a non-paying internship!! This breaks my heart. I'm brown, a future attorney, *and* Atlanta's my hometown. *tear*.

Frankly, I find these criticisms absurd. NASABA is a not meant to be the Indian version of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. And I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. The NAACP was formed by DuBois to dismantle Jim Crow. And blacks were generally unified in their opposition to Jim Crow. There is no common enemey to all desis. Sure, meth merchant represents egregious racial profiling, but it's not the kind of pervasive evil blacks at the turn of the century faced. Nor is it the kind of evil that would unify blacks today. Desis now come in all stripes. Some of us are corporate lawyers and some of us are quite conservative. I'm not sure I understand why all groups that purport to serve a minority community have to swear their allegiance to groups like the ACLU and Legal Defense Fund or risk being vilified by the public. It's frankly absurd. Operation Meth Merchant certainly represents egregious racial profiling and civil rights advocates should aggressively attacks the government's methods. But I don't NASABA should be attacked for taking the middle ground on this issue.

Venkat --

Well, "absurd" seems to be putting things a bit strongly, no? And I hardly think that Brown Lantern's measured and balanced words -- a call for dialogue and conversation as much as anything else, the way I read them -- really constituted much of an "attack" on or "vilification" of anyone.

Especially since you seem to agree that Meth Merchant constitutes "egregious racial profiling," what could possibly justify not taking a stand about that? Who in our community -- conservative, liberal, moderate -- is interested in justifying "egregious racial profiling" -- and even if someone is, why should a group like NASABA be catering to that least common denominator if the actions in question are really as egregious as many others, including you, seem to believe? (Many conservatives, incidentally, oppose racial profiling.)

Just because NASABA is a bar association doesn't mean that it can't take a stand on issues of concern to the South Asian community. Here's a sampling of what other ethnic bar associations -- none of which is trying to be a civil rights litigation organization like the NAACP LDF or ACLU, and all of whom have plenty of corporate lawyers and conservatives among their members -- have said and done just in recent months and years:

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
-- NAPABA DENOUNCES MORALLY AND RACIALLY OFFENSIVE RADIO PROGRAMMING IN NYC
-- NAPABA DENOUNCES ANTI-ASIAN HATE SPEECH ON NEW JERSEY RADIO
-- NAPABA CALLS ON THE SENATE TO EXAMINE HARRIET MIERS’ RECORD ON DIVERSITY
-- NAPABA EXPRESSES CONCERNS OVER JUDGE ALITO’S RECORD

Hispanic National Bar Association
-- Border Vigilantes Represent America At Its Wost Says Hispanic National Bar Association
-- HNBA Urges Senate Leaders to Protect Anti-Discrimination Provisions in Telecom Laws
-- HNBA Supports National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice
-- HNBA Calls for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

National Bar Association [a national association of African American lawyers]
-- RESOLUTION OF THE NATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION CENSORING THE CONDUCT OF JUDGE MARGARET T. WALLER, A CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE IN FLORIDA’S NINTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
-- NATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION URGES U.S. SENATE TO WITHHOLD CONFIRMATION OF JUDGE JOHN G. ROBERTS UNTIL SATISFIED NOMINEE WILL PROTECT EQUAL JUSTICE, CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
-- 'ELECTION PROTECTION' IN DANGER -- NBA Holds Briefing on Post-Katrina Issues of Election Protection & Affiliate Mobilization
-- National Bar Association Resolution in Support of the Renewal of the Assault Weapon Ban of 1994

The question that then remains is whether you think there is any scope for a group like NASABA ever to take a position on anything that doesn't rise to the level of Jim Crow segregation. If not, perhaps I (and all these other bar associations) simply disagree with you. But in that case, I'd still be interested in hearing your explanation for what justifies NASABA not only keeping its mouth shut, but also spending the better part of the past year going beyond keeping its mouth shut to effectively collaborate with the racially-motivated initiatives that you seem to agree are egregious.

Desis now come in all stripes. Some of us are corporate lawyers and some of us are quite conservative. I'm not sure I understand why all groups that purport to serve a minority community have to swear their allegiance to groups like the ACLU and Legal Defense Fund or risk being vilified by the public.

Well, the point is that groups often claim to serve "minority" communities without stating up front that they're making a clear distinction between "disempowered" communities and groups that are simply "minority" populations when the context for most people in the U.S. is that a minority group--and particularly a racial group--is equivalent to a disempowered group.

Obviously this is a problem with the way in which race and social justice are discussed in the United States--minority doesn't equal disempowered--consider women vs. men or working class vs. wealthy. However, NASABA is presumably composed of a lot of shrewd and savvy people--if it or any other representaitve of "minority" groups is behaving as a pro-corporate or conservative group without making clear that it has little concern for disempowered groups (like poor or language-impaired or potentially deportable South Asians and others), that's disinegenous. At best.

The rank-and-file NASABA members were not too happy about that cozy relationship.

Understatement of the CENTURY.

anyways.. i'm a student volunteer at the conference and i'd love to do a mini-meetup of bloggers... so if you're interested email me at cusailgurl(at)yahoo.com

Hey, did anyone attend this? Am curious about how it was, especially since we don't have Abhi's crack reporting this year -- highlights/lowlights, scuttlebutt re: Meth Merchant, or anything else interesting. Email me at the above email address if you were there and are willing to share any info....