Marking a historic trip to Myanmar, a senior United States lawmaker on Saturday met pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi as well as the country's military ruler Than Shew and secured the release of an American, who had been jailed for secretly visiting the residence of the detained leader. Democrat Senator Jim Webb became the first senior US official to meet the reclusive Myanmar general in the capital Naypyidaw.
S R Sidarth, who Senator George Allen called a 'macaca', recounts his experience.
Allen was ahead by 16 points in July and the Democrats did not even consider Webb a viable challenger, until Allen called an Indian-American, Shekar Sidarth, a volunteer in the Webb campaign, a 'macaca', considered a racial slur.
Sidarth now works as paid staffer in the communications wing of Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson, where he compiles newspaper clips on all items of interest to the campaign, drafts press releases and performs other communication tasks
Rediff.com tries to recap the debate and presents the highlights from the event.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton will face her first major political test on Wednesday when she shares the stage with four other aspirants at the party's inaugural debate of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Hillary Clinton said she already has the experience of handling both India and China.