Los Angeles will be home to a new Indian consulate after a strong lobbying effort by local Indian American leaders and city officials over the last couple years.
Gunjan Bagla, a Santa Monica business consultant, started a petition and after collecting nearly 4,000 signatures, sent hard copies to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top diplomatic officials.
Over at L.A. City Hall, Mayor Karen Bass was trying to make the same case. Last September, Bass sent a letter to India’s ambassador to the U.S., listing all of the city’s attributes.
L.A. and Boston selected
This week, the call appeared to be heeded. Modi announced at a speech in New York Sunday that he was opening new consulates in L.A., as well as Boston.
"I had asked for suggestions from you for two more consulates," Modi said. "I am happy to announce that after reviewing your suggestions, India has decided to open two new consulates in Boston and Los Angeles.”
Bagla had anticipated that Modi could announce new consulates on this trip to the U.S.
“I had prepared people that it may not happen despite all our efforts,” Bagla said. “So I was overjoyed.”
A second Indian consulate for California
The state already has an Indian consulate that’s been operating out of San Francisco since the 1950s.
“The view from New Delhi was, ‘Hey, California is only one state, and so one consulate is more than enough,” Bagla said.
But given L.A.'s size and population, that didn’t make sense to Bagla, who helps U.S. firms do business in India through his company Amritt.
Bass, in her letter to then-ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu, pointed out that L.A. is home to more than 150,000 Indian Americans and that 12 members of the G20 — a group of the world’s largest economies — have consulates in L.A.
India is the only country with a Top 5 economy lacking a diplomatic office in L.A.
The Indian embassy in D.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
