Herald-Trib's Ernst drinks the Walia Kool-Aid (mmmm..... lemon-lime)
According to a recent article by Eric Ernst in the Herald-Tribune, city council candidate Harbhajan Singh Aluwalia changed his name to Harry Walia some 17 years ago. Eric got his information from Ahluwalia. Eric believes the candidate because Ahluwalia waved a U.S passport around and mumbled out some words about baseball and apple pie. At candidate forums and rallies, he waves his passport around and claims that there are vicious rumors floating around that he is not Harry Walia. Ahluwalia is playing the race card while trying to avoid the outright suggestion that race is an issue.

Curiously, he won't let anyone see that passport -- at least he wouldn't let me have a glance at it when I asked after he waved it around at a League of Women Voters candidate forum. Not that it really matters. It probably does say Harry Walia. That's not the problem. The problem is that he has been using both names simultaneously for the past two decades at least, but he is now denying that to voters. As I'll show you in a minute, the net effect is an attempt to marginalize his past. To the voters that Ahluwalia is asking for the job of city councilman, that's a very real deception, and Ernst never saw it.

Ahluwalia plays the race card
The unspoken accusation is that anyone who tries to pin the man from India down as to which name he is using at any given moment is a racist. Ernst, in his article, clearly showed his white liberal guilt and bought right into that line.  Nevertheless, there is a race issue, if only in the observation that Ahluwalia seems to be publicly fleeing as fast as he can from his Sikh roots, which is really odd and counter-productive as this community has blindly embraced him if only because it would appear to be racist to do anything but (see this ridiculous bit of heart tugging Americana dreck on Ahluwalia from the Gondo, for example; look closely at the pics at the end).

It has been my experience that both good people and bad come in a wide variety of colors, accents, sexes, sexual orientations, shapes, sizes, religions (or lack of), shoe sizes, and ethnic backgrounds. Just because a politico is from a perceived minority does not and should not exempt that person for close scrutiny, especially when that person has exhibited bad behavior. Giving someone a pass from such accountability because of their race is... well, it's racist.

Still using the name of Ahluwalia in his business dealings today
The truth is that Harbhajan Singh Ahluwalia started using the alias of Harry S. Walia at least 17 years ago, and the man has been using both names interchangeably ever since. His voter registration was issued in 1994 to Harry Walia, while another currently valid voter's registration has been issued to a Diana or Diane Ahluwalia at the same residential address (I'm still unclear if this is supposed to be the same person as Clearwater attorney Diana Pankova, who Harbhajan Ahluwalia identified to the Gondolier as his friend in this Gondo photo, the two of them on the left). His drivers license has been in the name of Harbhajan Singh Ahluwalia up until May of this year, when he apparently changed it solely for the purpose of having a somewhat less ethnic sounding (and easier to market) name available to put on the ballot. A 1996 arrest for DUI, where the council candidate blew a 1.16 blood alcohol content, lists his name as Harbhajan Singh Ahluwalia on the arrest report. A 2002 traffic ticket lists the same name and drivers license number as the DUI reports. His house in Golden Beach, on the island, is listed on the 2009 Sarasota County tax roles as being owned by Harbhajan Singh Ahluwalia. He started a company, Green Apples Hotels LLC, in 2007 as Harbhajan Singh Ahluwalia and he is still listed by that name as the owner of the fledgling would-be Venice hotel.

A countersuit filed by an airport business that accuses the council candidate of fraud, inducement to fraud, and outright misappropriation of funds (start at page 5 of this court document) names him as Walia. In numerous other lawsuits filed against him over the years (and there have been lots and lots of them), he is known interchangeably as Ahluwalia and Walia.

He hasn't been using the names secretly and there is no law that says someone cannot use an alias -- anyone can use any name they choose at any time as long as it isn't for the purpose of trying to defraud someone else.

In India, Walia = Ahluwalia... but this isn't India
Using the name Walia in place of Ahluwalia is not an uncommon practice for what is a very common name in India. According to Wikipedia, "Ahluwalia is one of twelve Sikh Misls, or fighting clans, founded by the misldar (leader of the misl) Jassa Singh Ahluwalia in mid-eighteenth century Punjab, who also found the Kapurthala State."

Did you follow all of that? In other words, the name Ahluwalia is about as common as Smith or Jones. In India, Walia is a commonly used shortened version of the name Ahluwalia -- anyone there would know that the two names are interchangeable. His first name, Harbhajan, is equally common in India, just as common as Harry or John. The middle name Singh is a standard identifier for people born into the Sikh religion/philosophy.

Maybe Ahluwalia hasn't noticed, but this isn't India, and your average southwest Florida gringo would never know any of this. Here's a hint, Harry: to our Americanized "you ain't like us, are you?" ears, the two names of Ahluwalia and Walia sound like two entirely different names. We need an explanation to tie them together. So that would be simple, right? Rather than explain that, Ahluwalia is running away from his given name on the campaign trail and is draping himself in the American flag to try to get the name Ahluwalia out of the voters' minds. According to his campaign rhetoric, he has always been Walia, has never used Ahluwalia in the past 17 years, he changed his name to the shorter version almost two decades ago and never looked back. Which is all flat out not true. Given the nature of his background, this name diversion is the least of his dishonesties with the Venice voters.

More to come...

John Patten is the editor and publisher of Venice Florida! dot com and had previously worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.