'US more backward than India in leadership roles for women'

The US is "more backward" than India when it comes to leadership role for women, according to H R Shah, the CEO of TV Asia, the largest South Asian TV network in America.

Endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, he said on Wednesday that US voters now had a chance to remedy this failing of the US by electing a woman and Indian Americans should back her.

Speaking at a news conference held by 'Indian Americans for Democrats and Friends of Hillary for President', he said that the US was so "backward" that in its 240-year history it had not had a woman president while India, in its short history of about 70 years, has had a woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in office for 15 years.

The US has the opportunity to elect Hillary Clinton as its first woman president and Indian Americans should be a part of the historic effort, he said.

Mike Patel, who served under Bill Clinton as a member of the President's Advisory Commission on Asians and Pacific Islanders and is a former chairman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, said that contributing to election funds of politicians alone did not matter and Indian Americans should also vote and get involved in community affairs.

He said that hotel owner were provide free rooms to volunteers who were working to mobilise voters in several key states as part of their involvement in the civic life of the US.