An Indian-American fundraiser has urged US Vice President Kamala Harris to visit her mother’s hometown, Chennai, if she is elected president in the November elections.
Harris, 59, is the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. She declared her candidacy after President Joe Biden decided not to run for a second term on July 20. The Democratic Party is expected to officially announce her as their candidate next month.
Shekar Narasimhan, Chairman and founder of the Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Victory Fund said, “If she’s elected, I will be pushing and saying, let’s go to India. But you got to go to Chennai. You got to go to Chennai. You can go to Delhi. Delhi’s fine with me. You got to do all that, but Chennai we gotta go.”
What should we call Donald Trump: messiah/liar, businessman/failure, victim/convict, genius/weird? Could all this be true at the same time? Yes, for 95% of the voters-probably evenly split.
So to win, @KamalaHarris needs to expand the electorate. And we can & will!@42alliance
— Shekar Narasimhan (@ShekarNara) July 28, 2024
Chennai is where Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was from. Shyamala moved to the US for higher studies at 16. Harris has many fond memories of Chennai, visiting it often in her childhood. In 2009, she scattered her mother’s ashes in the Indian Ocean near the city.
Narasimhan added, “I said in one of the pieces I’ve written, because my mother’s from Chennai and her mother’s from Chennai, I said, boy, you know, to me, the dream is she’s president and we are going to Chennai. And she will get an enraptured welcome, and she should.”
He compared Harris’ potential visit to that of Bill Clinton’s, saying, “If Bill Clinton could get it, why would you not welcome back the daughter of the mother of your soil? So yes, there should be excitement (among Indians).”
Narasimhan acknowledged that some people might question what Harris would do for India but emphasized the importance of American and Indian foreign policies being guided by their respective national interests. He stated, “I think the negatives always are going to be what is she doing for us? How is she different than? American foreign policy should be dictated by American interests, unfortunately or fortunately. I think the same for Indian foreign policy. I always argue Indian foreign policy should be dictated by what’s important to India.”
Narasimhan concluded, “So, let’s just be adults, but here you have an emotional connection. Let’s take advantage of it. Let’s build on it to say, what’s the next level we could take this? How could we create a partnership that was baked on trust and mutual understanding?”Indian-American fundraiser urges Kamala Harris to visit Chennai if elected as US President
