Netizens are rejoicing the nomination of Indian-origin Kamala Harris as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate, who had announced in March, his plan to select a woman as his vice president. On the other hand, incumbent President Donald Trump has made no such announcement for his second term presidency.
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According to reports, there has even been speculation that Trump might switch out Vice-President Mike Pence for another Indian-origin politician – Nikki Haley as his running mate in the hopes of boosting his lagging approval numbers among the broader electorate.
Nikki Haley and Kamala Harris are both first-generation Americans of Indian descent and are among very few women of colour who have managed to reach top ranks in their respective parties.
Harris was born to Jamaican father and Indian mother and has now made history by being the first Black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket. After the announcement made by Biden through his twitter handle, Harris’ nomination received instant support from several influential names including former President Barack Obama, Speaker of House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Indian actor Priyanka Chopra among others.
Meanwhile, Nikki Haley is one of the few high ranking Republicans to leave the Trump administration on good terms. She has pledged to campaign aggressively for the incumbent president and has echoed similar arguments Trump has made on national topics such as cancel culture, defunding police forces and statue removal, although the tone and frequency between Trump and Haley vary dramatically.
“When she left the administration she told the president that she wanted to stay engaged and promote good public policy,” said Tim Chapman, the executive director of Haley’s Stand for America non-profit group, the primary vehicle for Haley’s policy-related initiatives.
As reported earlier by EurAsian Times citing political experts, India had pinned hope on Nikki Haley to become the US Vice President or get in a position of power if Donald Trump gets re-elected. Now with Kamala Harris’ nomination, India has landed itself in a win-win situation.
Haley and Harris have criticised China’s recent moves. Haley has often pointed out that India is an example of a free government and recently even applauded New Delhi’s decision to ban 59 Chinese applications and for standing up to China.
Recently, Hailey criticized China and said – “Then once President Xi kind of named himself king, they got very aggressive. They got very bullish. They started to kind of point their fingers in countries’ faces saying, you’d better vote with us. They started to be very aggressive at the UN in wanting positions and wanting to have leadership roles. And they started talking down to everyone.”
“We can’t ignore China’s mass detention of more than a million Uighur Muslims in “reeducation camps” in the Xinjiang region, or its widespread abuse of surveillance for political and religious repression. We can’t ignore Beijing’s failure to respect the rights and autonomy of Hong Kong’s people and the Hong Kong government’s excessive use of force against peaceful protestors,” said Harris.
After the nomination, Chinese state media, Global Times, has criticised Harris in its harshly worded editorial saying that her stance on China will escalate the “who-is-the-toughest-on-China competition” between the “donkey and elephant” in the 2020 US presidential race.
It also added that Harris had jointly launched the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act in 2019, and urged several US investigation agencies to probe China’s suppression of Uygurs.
The US Presidental elections are scheduled for November 3 this year and will be closely watched around the world. Now, with Harris in the race, if Haley also gets picked as Trump’s nomination for Vice President, it is a sure shot chance for stronger Indo-US relations ahead.
