N.Y. lawyer and Indian lawmaker Madhu Yaskhi. (Photo, as it appears on madhuyaskhi.com)

NEW DELHI - For successful New York attorney Madhu Goud Yaskhi, a rash of suicides by debt-ridden farmers in his native Andhra Pradesh set off a chain reaction that has culminated in his election to the Indian Parliament.

“I am the only nonresident Indian (NRI) member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha (the lower house). I intend to use (this status) to become an interface with the 20 million Indian diaspora across the globe,” the soft-spoken Yaskhi said in an interview with News India-Times at his hotel here.

“I also want to use my experience abroad to raise funds for the needy and ensure that the funds are properly utilized,” Yaskhi, who won from the Nizamabad constituency, said.

Yaskhi said his journey to politics started a year-and-a-half ago when he was reading a newspaper while traveling in the subway to the law firm he founded nine years ago in Manhattan –– International Legal and Trade Consultants.

The paper spoke about the plight of farmers in Machareddy town in Andhra Pradesh and he immediately wanted to become a source of refuge to their families, among whom many had lost their breadwinners due to suicides.

“I started by giving Rs. 10,000 ($220) each to the 43 farmer families who had committed suicides. They had lost confidence in themselves and in the government,” Yaskhi said.

His wife, Shuchee, an endocrinologist who also had a successful career in New York, returned to India and started a practice to tend to children and the poor.

“We did not work for recognition. But it was noticed. Then on March 31, on the last day for filing nominations, I got a ticket from the Congress Party to run for the Lok Sabha from Nizamabad,” Yaskhi said.

“I could just campaign for 18 days, but managed to win with a comfortable margin.”

Yaskhi said he wants to create a wider platform for addressing issues concerning the Indian diaspora. And though his from New York. he said his primary focus would be on NRIs in the Gulf region. “NRIs in the U.S. are well placed. It is the Gulf NRIs who face many problems but do not get enough support,” he noted.

Recalling his early years, Yaskhi said he was born in Hayatnagar in a middle class family of modest means on Dec. 15, 1960, and has six sisters and four brothers. He went to the U.S. after a bachelor’s degree in arts from Nizam College in Hyderabad, a law degree from the University of Delhi and a postgraduate degree in law from Osmania University.

“I basically went to the U.S. for further studies, to do a Ph.D. But the cost of education was so prohibitive that I took up some work at the Indian consulate in New York,” he said. It was during this period that he worked for a brief three-month period at News India-Times “to help in the coverage of the 1989 elections.”

“But within a year my father died in an accident and the responsibility of supporting my family fell on my shoulders. I took up various odd jobs and finally started my law firm.”

Yaskhi also involved himself in community empowerment and participated in several fund-raisers for U.S. congressmen and senators.

He says he will soonan office in his district where constituents can talk about their problems freely. “I want to use every experience gained in the U.S. to help my constituency.”

Yaskhi, who plans to visit New York later this month, meet with his many friends and supporters in the city, is expected to be given a Congress Party post focusing on diaspora affairs.