Since last January, when President Donald Trump appointed him, Ajit Pai has not just become chairman of the powerful Federal Communications Commission but an instrumental player in an administration whose policies stand squarely in the crosshairs of the nation’s emotions.
A former Verizon attorney, Pai has been decried by detractors as a corporate shill strategically positioned in the nation’s capital. His most recent action — the dismantling of the Obama administration’s net neutrality policy — has drawn perhaps the most open hostility of all. Charging him with “ruining the internet,” protesters have threatened Pai, his wife and children, covered his house with disparaging signs and taken to the internet with accusations and calls for his removal.
Protesters have even established AjitVPai.com, a website that encourages visitors to contact the FCC about Pai’s actions. The site also explains how, without net neutrality, ISPs such as AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon can block or dramatically slow users’ access to some sites.
In social media and on various websites, he is identified as “the most hated man on the internet.” There was speculation too over why he cancelled his scheduled Jan. 9 appearance in Las Vegas at the widely attended Consumer Electronics Show held by the Consumer Technology Association. Pai had been booked to participate in what the CTA called “a candid conversation.” No reason for the cancellation was given, although a Recode report on Jan. 4 said that Pai had received death threats.
Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Varadaraj Pai is interviewed by Stuart Varney of Fox Business Network and Ashley Webster and Mark Steyn at FOX Studios on November 10, 2017 in New York City. (Getty Images)
But for his part, Pai has mostly been unafraid to stare down his detractors publicly. A former associate general counsel for Verizon, he has even joined in the joking himself. At the FCC Chairman’s Dinner late last year, he showed a videotape of a comic skit that depicts him as a “Verizon puppet” placed in Washington to serve the interests of the ISPs. The skit featured Pai and Kathy Grillo, Verizon senior vice president and deputy general counsel.
The ascension of Pai, 44, the son of Indian immigrants, has also split the Indian-American community, which now comprises camps of Pai detractors and boosters. There are also those who condemn attacks against his family and his race, regardless of their politics. Indian-American lawmakers on Capitol Hill have also mounted a challenge against him.
Pai has tried to reason out with his critics, first by explaining that the Obama administration rules have “depressed investment in building and expanding broadband networks and deterred innovation.”
He has even taken to the internet, the very medium he is accused of sabotaging. The night before the net-neutrality vote in December, he donned a Santa suit, and with a fidget spinner in one hand and a lightsaber in another, and in a video billed as a public-service announcement, assured Christmas shoppers the internet was still open for business. Later in the same sequence, he assured millennials they could still “gram their food” and “post photos of cute animals” when net neutrality is scrapped.
Demonstrators rally outside the Federal Communication Commission building in Washington, D.C., to protest against the end of net neutrality rules, Dec. 14, 2017. (Getty Images)
The controversial video appeared on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, although a sequence featuring Pai’s gyrating dance number to the “Harlem Shake” angered the producer of the copyrighted music. The producer, a DJ known as Baauer, called for its removal adding that he did not agree with Pai’s policies either.
Pai had made an earlier appeal to America’s youth in a video for conservative news site IJ Review in May: He read aloud the meanest tweets about his proposals, a response to criticism lobbed his way by TV’s John Oliver. Many of the tweets were clearly racial assaults: “Ajit Pai: Go back to Africa — w[h]ere you came from.”“Do you even English, bro?”
Although many prominent members of the Indian-American community share the vocal opposition over Pai and his policies, they find the level of hatred — and its tone — to be distressing. “I have been dismayed by all the brown shaming that Ajit has been subjected to,” a Washington, D.C.-based media consultant and political strategist who did not wish to be identified, told India Abroad.
Several other people likewise told India Abroad their sentiments were the same. Condemning the personal attacks on Pai, they said they did not want to be identified because of their professional affiliations with the FCC.
But many said that carrying out a policy that might not be favored within his community does not make Pai less of an Indian.
WHO IS AJIT PAI
Dino Teppara, a prominent Republican attorney who has known Pai for 15 years, describes him as a “classic immigrant model.” Pai should be recognized as one of the “greatest Indian-Americans,” Teppara told India Abroad. His background, which Teppara said was “exceptional,” is proof enough that Pai has worked hard to reach the position he commands today.
The son of Konkani immigrants from India was born in Buffalo, New York and grew up in rural Parsons, Kansas, where both of his parents were doctors at the county hospital. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a J.D. from the University of Chicago, where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review.
In a speech at the U.S.-India Business Council in March, Pai described his family’s journey as the “American Dream manifest.” Pai told the gathering that his parents came to the U.S. in 1971, with just a radio and $10 in their pockets.
“Like so many immigrants, they sacrificed to give me opportunities not available to them as children…Forty-six years after my parents’ journey from India, here I am, the grandson of a spare auto parts salesman and a file clerk, tapped by the president of the United States to be the nation’s chief communications regulator.”
Pai’s law career includes assignments mostly with the U.S. judicial services and Congress in difference capacities as well as stints with private corporations. He was also a congressional aide to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
A small group of protestors supporting net neutrality protest against a plan by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) head Ajit Pai, during a protest outside a Verizon store on December 7, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images)
THE BACKLASH
Critics say that the FCC’s repeal of Obama-era net neutrality regulations, which were intended to keep the web open and fair, will destroy the internet as people know it. Net neutrality proponents have argued that the rules under the 2015 Open Internet Order are crucial in keeping providers such as Cablevision, Comcast and Verizon from having too much control as internet gatekeepers.Pai’s decision to dismantle neutrality raised concerns and fears that these companies will have the power to block websites, throttle services and censor online content. Many have also said that the dismantling of net neutrality has effectively gutted poor people’s access to the internet.
J. Krishnan, a San Carlos, California-based machine learning engineer, who has recently launched a startup of his own, told India Abroad that the repeal will allow providers to gain the right to favor the internet traffic of those companies with whom they have pay-for-play arrangements.
“Elimination of net neutrality frees broadband providers up to begin charging websites for smooth and more efficient passage over their networks,” he said, adding that it will create barriers for smaller companies and startup enterprises. Like Krishnan, sevel other startup entrepreneurs believe that the new FCC ruling will harm the small businesses and startups. They say companies should be able to compete with incumbents on the quality of their products and services, not by their capacity to pay tolls to internet access providers.
Many of them were part of a group which issued a letter to Pai in April, which included more than 800 names representing a massive swath of tech’s net neutrality supporters — from investors and incubators to startups and code schools.
“The success of America’s startup ecosystem depends on more than improved broadband speeds. We also depend on an open Internet — including enforceable net neutrality rules that ensure big cable companies can’t discriminate against people like us. We’re deeply concerned with your intention to undo the existing legal framework,” the letter said.
Pai has come under a blistering attack from several Indian-American lawmakers on Capitol Hill — all Democrats — led by California Rep. Ro Khanna, whose district includes Silicon Valley. A few months ago there was a Twitter feud between Pai and Khanna, who had taken to the House floor to condemn Pai for rolling back a program that would provide internet access to low-income Americans. Khanna initiated a letter signed by 40 other members urging Pai to reconsider.
“We need stronger net neutrality laws that ban most forms of zero rating instead of weakening these laws,” Khanna tweeted in November. He accused the FCC of pandering to major corporations, giving “even more control over the media, paving the way for megamergers. The controversial proposal triggered a war of words between Pai and Khanna who was joined by California Sen. Kamala Devi Harris and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington.
While many criticized his policies, some like comedian Hari Kondabolu took aim instead at Pai’s Indianness, questioning it.
“Ajit Pai is the type of Indian guy who eats dosa with a fork,” he tweeted. Kondabolu’s post encouraged others to chime in too: users wrote that Pai called “chai…chai tea,” “thinks Lassi is a dog” and says “Naan bread.”
Kondabolu later doubled-down on his criticism. “Dear @AjitPaiFCC, I apologize for my tweets questioning your “Brown-ness,” he tweeted. “You are not a disappointment to Indian Americans…but to all Americans. You can eat a pakora while destroying #NetNeutrality. You can wear a kurta while catering to corporate interests. #AjitPaiSucks.”
The wave of anti-Pai sentiment in the media can be traced back to comedian John Oliver, who has made net neutrality a personal cause. Last year, he singled out Pai on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight.”
“The dangerous thing about Pai is he presents himself as a fun, down-to-earth nerd,” Oliver said in May, before embarking on a virtual dressing-down of Pai that mocked everything from his love of the movie “The Big Lebowski” to his giant coffee mug, to his interpretation of infrastructure investment.
Other late-night talk show hosts joined in. “Late Night” host Seth Meyers used the opportunity to take a dig at Republicans, explaining that polls show that Americans overwhelmingly supported net neutrality, including 75 percent of Republicans; Jimmy Kimmel called the vote by the FCC “absolutely despicable,” and “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah had a solution after the vote: “I guess we’re all gonna have to be sneaking onto Canada’s Wi-Fi.” He even speculated on the password. Will it be “a boot,” he wondered.
SUPPORT FOR PAI
Some members of the Indian-American community rushed to Pai’s defense, among them Indiaspora member and leader, Shekar Narasimhan, a top Democratic strategist. Slamming anyone who criticized Pai over his race and religion, a statement on Indiaspora’s website said,”Irrespective of your political leanings, behavior and threats against individuals for their actions are unacceptable. We should have zero tolerance for hate and xenophobia whether it’s directed from the left or right. It’s un-American and against all the tenets of our great religions.”
Teppara believes that all the negativity towards Pai is a knee-jerk reaction to President Donald Trump and his policies. “The problem is with the people,” Teppara said. “He [Pai] is clearly doing his job, and he’s good at it.”
Harin Contractor, chair of the Washington Leadership Program, described Pai as a friend of the program, which mentors young South Asian-Americans. Contractor said Pai meets with WLP interns every year for an open and wide-ranging conversation about his policies and his career path.
But Indiaspora’s support for Pai pitted the organization and others like the Hindu American Foundation against Indian-American progressives like Deepa Iyer, founder of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT).
While Iyer, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Social Inclusion does not support the racist attacks against Pai, she said his decision to dismantle net neutrality was “completely misguided and complete and dishonest” and reflective of “the white supremacist administration he works for.” Joining Iyer was Shikha Bhatnagar of the South Asian Network who said Indiaspora was “only interested in perpetuating the model minority myth and highlighting affluence and success in the Indian-American community.”
