At meet with PM Modi, Biden highlights Kamala Harris' Indian roots, calls her mother 'remarkable woman'
Sep 24, 2021
Washington [US], September 25 : US President Joe Biden on Friday (local time) pointed out his deputy Kamala Harris' Indian connection during his first in-person meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and called her mother Shyamala Gopalan, who was from India, "remarkable woman".
"When I showed the Prime Minister to his seat, I pointed out that that this seat is occupied almost every day by Vice President of US who is an Indian American. Vice President's mother was from India, a scientist and a remarkable woman," Biden said as he hosted PM Modi at the Oval Office in the White House for the first in-person bilateral meeting.
Harris has broken many glass barriers by becoming the first woman and Indian American to be elected as the US Vice President.
PM Modi on Thursday praised Harris as a "source of inspiration" while extending an invitation to her to visit India.
"Your election as Vice President of USA has been an important and historic event. You are a source of inspiration for many across the world. I am confident that under President Biden and your leadership our bilateral relations will touch new heights," PM Modi said as the two leaders held the first in-person meeting here.
"Continuing on this journey of victory, Indians would also want you to continue that in India and therefore they are waiting to welcome you. I extend you an invitation to visit India," he added.
Prime Minister Modi arrived in Washington for his much-touted US visit on Wednesday.
Harris was born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother Shyamala Gopalan, who was born in Tamil Nadu before she moved to the US for further study.
Shyamala was a leading cancer researcher and activist. Harris's maternal grandfather was born in Thulasenthirapuram in the Tiruvarur district, located about 320 km south of the city of Chennai. Shyamala was the daughter of PV Gopalan, a civil servant.
Harris is the first Indian-American to be elected district attorney of San Francisco, the first South Asian American to become a US senator.
Fifty-five-year-old Kamala Harris began her career in the 1990s at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in the city of Oakland and later became the first woman of colour in 2011 to serve as California's attorney general.
