While democracy in Pakistan takes a back seat to a military coup, Indian immigrants here rejoice in the BJP election victory at home -- mainly because it protects their pocketbooks and makes them look best abroad. PNS correspondent Sarita Sarvate is a nuclear physicist and writer for India Currents and other publications.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Most Indian immigrants in the United States are rejoicing in the election victory of the alliance led by the ruling BJP party at home. It will make our India look best abroad.

And at a moment when neighboring Pakistan is going through a military overthrow of its democratically-elected government, India under the BJP might be recognized for preserving democracy for half a century in a region plagued by coups, tyranny and totalitarianism.

Immigrants' loyalty to the BJP (Bharatiya Jana Party) is based on three key factors: a sense of pride it inspires with its agenda of Hindu fundamentalism or Hindutva; its strong foreign policy posture as conveyed through its nuclear stance and recent victory over Pakistan at Kargil; and the BJP's liberal economic agenda.

For NRI's as the Indian government describes us (Non-Resident Indians), it is the economic agenda that overshadows all else. One of the most successful immigrant groups in America -- six Indian billionaires recently made it to Forbes's 100 richest Americans list -- NRI's are driven by material aspirations more than by ideology. As long as the BJP promotes the NRIs' financial interests, Indians abroad are not likely to agitate about nuclear non-proliferation, the status of women, and the treatment of minorities.

Yet both the BJP and Indian immigrants here display a schizophrenia about these very controversial issues. The election saw both the BJP and the Congress Party-led alliances take progressive positions to woo voters. In recent years the BJP itself had pushed for more traditional role models for women, for instance, like those prescribed in ancient Hindu epics; yet in this election its winning coalition supported an agenda that reserves 33% of parliamentary seats for women.

Similarly, the affirmative action which India invented at independence in 1947 seemed to regain stronger footing, after facing a serious challenge in recent decades from the Brahmin-dominated BJP. The BJP made the pragmatic decision to include untouchables in its coalition in order to stay in power.

As to the nuclear threat, the BJP seems to have been emboldened by India's victory against Pakistan in the recent war, and had softened its stance against its neighbor. It has implied a willingness to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Meanwhile in the United States, Indian immigrants too exhibit split minds on the ethnic, women's, and nuclear issues. BJP-affiliated organizations such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Congress) now occupy a strong position in Indian temples in America, often conducting lucrative fundraising drives. Ethnic divisions have widened, with each political faction in India supporting its counterpart here.

The schism in the Indian immigrant community over the status of women is evident in the proliferation of South Asian Women's organizations devoted to stopping domestic violence. As the U.S. continues to import larger numbers of skilled software workers to feed its cyber-industry, the traditional Hindu female role model is bound to clash with Indian women's expectations in the American setting.

Most NRIs are concerned about the threat of nuclear conflict on the Indian subcontinent. Yet they view as righteous the government's demand that America and other Western powers eradicate their own stockpiles before pressing "Third World" countries to sign the CTBT.

As Indian immigrants achieve higher levels of success not only in technical fields, but also in literature, arts, politics, and the media, they will take a more active interest in politics, perhaps by uniting under one banner. They will clamor for more respect from the American government, not only for themselves, but for their homeland.

At the same time, second-generation Indians will be striving not to be politically important Non Resident Indians at all, but Indian Americans.