US Vice President Kamala Harris’s maternal uncle G Balakrishnan on Thursday said he was happy she credited her Indian mother in her campaign speeches, according to reports.
Harris, who scripted history by becoming the first-ever woman Vice President of the US, has credited her late mother Shyamala Gopalan for showing faith in her. The former senator was sworn in just before Biden took the oath of office to become the 46th US President.
“I am quite relieved that everything happened in due course. Now I can actually see her (Kamala Harris) doing the work. The way Biden and Harris issued executive orders just after swearing-in, I am confident that they will succeed in what they were trying to do,” Balachandran was quoted as saying by NDTV.
Asked about Harris’s speech, Balachandran said the ‘good speaker’. “I am happy that she remembered her mother in her campaign speeches,” he added.
Hours before Harris was sworn in, she posted a moving video on her Twitter as a tribute to the women “who came before her” and her mother who moved to the US from India to pursue the big American dream. She remembered her late mother, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist from India, saying she has always carried lessons from her mother with her throughout her career from serving as the first woman District Attorney of San Francisco, to the first woman Attorney General of California, and the first woman of colour to represent California in the United States Senate.
“I’m here today because of the women who came before me. And to the woman most responsible for my presence here today – my mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who is always in our hearts,” Harris said.
“When she came here from India at the age of 19, maybe she didn’t quite imagine this moment. But she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible. So, I’m thinking about her and about the generations of women–Black women. Asian, White, Latina, and Native American women throughout our nation’s history who have paved the way for this moment tonight, she said.
Harris’s uncle said he believes the relations between India and US will be stronger. “There are areas which demand lots of negotiations. But, certainly, the relation between the two countries will be stronger,” he said.
On Biden’s victory in the presidential race, he said the 77-year-old democrat will rebuild various international ties severed by former President Donald Trump during his tenure.
Balachandran said that he will be visiting the US as soon as he receives his coronavirus vaccine shot.
Source: News18