Kamala Recalls Time in India, Long Walks in Chennai, Love for Idli

Sen. Kamala Harris, arriving at the U.S. Capitol for the Senate impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump, on 31 January 2020. 

(Photo Courtesy: Mark Wilson/Getty Images via The Conversation)

Kamala Harris, the US vice-presidential candidate, congratulated India on the progress “our people have made in the fight for justice”, on the country’s 74th Independence Day.

A day after filing her nominations for the US general elections along with democratic opponent Joe Biden, Senator Harris said that the Indian and US communities are bound by so much more than their shared history and culture.

Talking about her Indian heritage at an event held by “South Asians for Biden”, Kamala Harris spoke of “long walks” with her grandfather in Chennai (then Madras), and the “love of good idli” that her mother, a Tamil Indian-American activist and cancer researcher, had instilled in her.

The senator recalled the lessons on India’s freedom struggle from her grandfather P V Gopalan, a civil servant, which she said contributed to “why I am where I am today”.

“Growing up, my mother would take my sister Maya and me back to what was then called Madras because she wanted us to understand where she had come from and where we had ancestry. And, of course, she always wanted to instil in us, a love of good idli.”

Kamala Harris, Vice Presidential Candidate, Democratic Party

With an eye on the 1.3 million Indian-Americans who are expected to vote in the 3 November election, Joe Biden’s umbrella organisation, ‘South Asians for Biden’, also launched the 'Indians for Biden National Council' on India’s Independence Day.

In his Independence Day message to India, Biden pledged to stand with the country as it confronts “new threats it faces in its own region and along its own border”.

While the democratic party has been intending to mobilise Indian-American voters across different backgrounds to back the Biden-Harris ticket, US President Donald Trump has claimed that he has "more Indians" on his side.

Trump’s re-election campaign has launched new coalitions to appeal to Indian-Americans and other South Asian communities ahead of the US general election.

The coalitions – “Indian Voices for Trump”, “Hindu Voices for Trump”, “Sikhs for Trump” and “Muslim Voices for Trump” – are expected to fight against Biden-Harris in the states with a significant Indian-American voter base.

As per reports, Trump’s campaign is also spending millions of dollars on digital ad campaigns next week, during the Democratic presidential convention.

The Trump campaign will be taking over the banner of YouTube for 96 hours on Tuesday, the second day of the convention.

According to The New York Times, Trump campaign ads will also cover the home pages of The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and FoxNews.com.

(With inputs from New York Times, ANI)