Indian-American Piyush Bobby Jindal, a conservative Republican, recreated history on Monday as he was sworn in as the youngest governor of once racially segregated American state of Louisiana.
He promised a "New Louisiana" that will be a magnet for the dreamers, the risk-takers, the adventurers, the leaders of America's new economy, Jindal said immediately after being sworn in as Louisiana's 55th governor.
Alongside with his wife Supriya and three little children, Piyush recited the oath of office, holding his hand to his family's Bible, and became Louisiana's first immigrant governor.
Pascal Calogero, chief justice of the Louisiana supreme court, administered the oath, making Jindal the first non-white governor in Louisiana and fourth Republican state chief executive since Reconstruction.
He is the first governor from Baton Rouge since the 1920s. He was born in Baton Rouge and raised in the Kenilworth neighborhood.
Jindal said an overhaul of the state's ethics laws and reduction in business taxes would make Louisiana a beacon for current residents and those who have left the state to seek opportunity elsewhere.
"For reasons none of us can understand or fully appreciate, history has placed all of us -- every living Louisianian, those within her borders and without -- in a position previous generations could only envy," Jindal said.
"Under the spotlight of the world, with generosity from many and a clear call to common purpose, we have the opportunity to make lasting and positive change," Jindal said.
Also taking the oath of office was Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain, Insurance Commissioner James Donelon, Treasurer John Kennedy, Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell and Secretary of State Jay Dardenne.
But the morning belonged to Jindal, the 36-year-old Republican who sailed into office with 54 per cent vote in the primary after narrowly losing his first gubernatorial bid four years ago to Democrat Kathleen Blanco.
Coming less than 30 months after large swaths of the state was destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Jindal takes office at a time of great opportunity in state government.
After years of trailing the rest of the South in key economic and social welfare indicators, Louisiana is reaping record revenues from sky-high energy prices.
Jindal inherits a government with record budget surpluses and a laundry list of issues that need urgent attention, from roads and ports to a vanishing coastline and education and health-care systems whose performance lags far behind other states.
"We must win a war on corruption and incompetence in government. It cannot be the last thing we do. It cannot be the second or third thing we do. It must be the first thing we do. Our biggest obstacle in the past must become our first victory toward a brighter future," he said.
Jindal made only passing reference to Katrina and Rita, and focused instead on his signature pledge to strengthen ethics laws and build "a Louisiana where incompetence is not a synonym for government."
"We will come to this Capitol to make a clean break with the past. To give Louisiana the highest standards for accountability anywhere in the nation," Jindal said.
"To take our government 180 degrees from the darkest chapters of its past."
Helping him implement his agenda is a legislature filled with newly elected members, particularly in the House of Representatives, thanks largely to a term limits law that took effect last year.
There are 59 new members in the 105-member House, plus at least a dozen more with less than a full term in office under their belts.
The 39-member Senate, by contrast, has only four new members with no prior legislative experience, along with several who moved to the upper chamber after serving, in some cases for decades, in the House.
Jindal's first acknowledgment of the storm devastation came about halfway through the address, when he directed his message to "living rooms scattered across Houston and Atlanta and Dallas, where former Louisianians now live."
"We must bring them home," Jindal said. "Wherever you are today hearing my voice, to my fellow Louisianans, those gathered here at the Capitol, to those inside our borders and outside, I ask you to come home. Come home in person. Or send home your commitment. Make Louisiana's rebirth your own priority".
Jindal's swearing in as Louisiana's 55th chief executive since becoming a state in 1812 is historic by several measures.
The son of immigrants, he is the first person of Indian descent to be elected chief executive of an American state.
At 36, he is the nation's youngest governor, and the third youngest in Louisiana history, trailing only Henry Clay Warmoth, who was 26 at the time of his election, and Huey P. Long, who was 35.
With his convincing victory in October, Jindal became the first candidate since Louisiana's 1974 Constitution set up the current open primary system that the winner of the governor's race captured an open seat without a runoff.
His elevation to the state's top job after serving as a top policymaker in Baton Rouge and Washington, D.C., as well as three years in the U.S. House of Representatives drew praise from across the political spectrum.
Image: Bobby Jindal being sworn in as Louisiana's 55th Governor at Baton Rouge.
Photograph: Paresh Gandhi I Reportage: PTI
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