Kamala Harris's Indian uncle plans US visit amid global celebrations for VP
Gopalan Balachandran said he wants to celebrate with her in person once it’s safe to travel
Guardian staff and agencies
Thu 21 Jan 2021 12.47 EST
Kamala Harris’s Indian uncle plans to visit the United States to congratulate her once he receives a Covid-19 vaccine, he said on Thursday, after his niece became the first woman, first Black American and first Asian American to hold national office after being sworn in as vice-president.
The political success of Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, has been celebrated in both India and the Caribbean.
Harris’s maternal uncle, Gopalan Balachandran, said he was happy to hear Harris mention her mother, who was a cancer researcher, in her speeches. He is a senior defense scholar who lives in Delhi.
“She is a good speaker. She didn’t throw any surprise, she mentioned her mother which she does often. I was happy about that,” Balachandran said.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/21/kamala-harris-india-uncle-gopalan-balachandran-visit-celebrations
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Watching Kamala’s big day from Delhi: ‘Just keep doing what your mother taught you’
"We are all very proud of her. Her mother would have been proud too. I do not have any advice for her as such… just keep doing what your mother taught you,” Gopalan Balachandran, who used to work with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said.
Written by Ashna Butani | New Delhi | Updated: January 21, 2021 7:36:07 am
Kamala Harris is Gopalan Balachandran’s neice.
Sitting at his Malviya Nagar home in Delhi, Gopalan Balachandran had his schedule clear for the night ahead: he would tune into CNN at 10:30 pm to watch his niece Kamala Harris being sworn in as the first woman Vice-President of the United States. Speaking to The Indian Express hours before the historic ceremony, he said: “I would have loved to be at the inaugural. But I did not want to risk it at this point. I will only go to the US after I have been vaccinated (against Covid). My daughter Sharada, who is very close to Kamala, is present at the ceremony.”
“We are all very proud of her. Her mother would have been proud too. I do not have any advice for her as such… just keep doing what your mother taught you,” Balachandran, who used to work with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said.
Speaking about her younger days, Balachandran said Harris inherited a number of traits from her mother, Shyamala. In her autobiography, The Truths We Hold, Harris wrote, “My mother had been raised in a household where political activism and civic leadership came naturally.” She spoke about how her grandmother would counsel women being abused by their husbands and how her mother often took her to civil rights marches while she was a toddler.
More:
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/watching-kamalas-big-day-from-delhi-just-keep-doing-what-your-mother-taught-you-7155175/
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