US politician Bobby Jindal depicted as white man in portrait hanging in Louisiana state capitol

THIS is a portrait of Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American governor in the US. The thing is, in one very obvious way, it looks nothing like him.

What’s wrong with this picture?

IF YOU don’t know who Bobby Jindal is, you could be excused for thinking he is a middle-class American white man. That’s certainly the way he appears in a portrait painted by one of his constituents.

Actually, Jindal is an Indian-American politician — the Governor of Louisiana to be specific.

He made headlines recently after a portrait appeared to show him as particularly caucausion. It went viral but Jindal hosed down the controversy immediately, despite persistent questions from reporters.

Bobby Jindal: “You mean I’m not white?” http://t.co/KO7l2duhgx pic.twitter.com/qvBNYgiXM4

— Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) February 10, 2015

Watching the Grammys with my mom. She just said Adam Levine looks like Bobby Jindal's portrait. pic.twitter.com/OWLiMBJY12

— Michael Flowers (@RosewoodOrDie) February 9, 2015

On morning television, Jindal addressed the question of whether he looked “too white”.

“I think this is such a silly argument,” he said.

“This was donated by a constituent, I’ve never met the artist, it’s not owned by me or the state, it’s not an official portrait. The reality is this: I think we need to move beyond race.”

He said a reporter at a press gathering was “obsessed by it”.

“You can write in every story you want that Jindal’s not white, this is just silly. We need to stop dividing people by race, by the colour of their skin, it’s the dumbest way to divide people.”

The portrait is hanging in the Louisiana state capitol.