In India, a proud uncle admires her principles

NEWDELHI:KAMALA Harris’ ability to stick to her principles and her commitment to human rights are two qualities that will stand her in good stead if she and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden win the US elections, her uncle Gopalan Balachandran said on Wednesday.

Balachandran said much of Harris’ views on politics and civil rights were shaped by her strong-willed mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who went against convention by travelling to the US for studies in 1958, and her grandfather, PV Gopalan, who rose from a humble beginning as a stenographer to become a government official who was deputed to Zambia in the 1960s to help with a refugee crisis because of his experience in rehabilitating refugees from Pakistan.

In an interview at his home in New Delhi, which was virtually taken over by media crews following the news that Biden had picked Harris as his running mate, the 80-year-old who specialises in civil nuclear issues and economics said his strongest impression of his niece was her ability to stand her ground.

Referring to Harris’ decision in 2004, when she was serving as district attorney in San Francisco, not to seek the death penalty for the killer of a policeman despite opposition from the police union, Balachandran said: “The ability to stick to her principles and to convince those who opposed her logic to come to her side, that was my strongest impression of her.”

Harris’ commitment to human rights and justice is largely due to her mother Shyamala, who married Jamaican national Donald Harris after meeting him during the black civil rights movement of the 1960s. Balachandran, who has a PHD in economics and computer science from the University of Wisconsin, said his sister Shyamala was politically active in the US when it was unheard of for Indianamericans to do so.

Harris, the first American of Indian and African origin and only the third woman to run for vice president, also has a strong connection to her roots. “Her roots are a combination of things – her mother’s roots are her roots, and her mother’s roots were strongly Indian in one sense and strongly independent in the other sense. [Harris’] roots are strongly influenced by her mother, and through her mother, when she used to come to India, her grandfather and others,” Balachandran said.

Balachandran said he had no plans to speak to Harris before the US elections are over. “If I tell her something, [they will say her] uncle is an expert on India-us relations and is advising her. The Indians are interfering in the US,” he said. But he did send a message to Harris. “I sent her a congratulatory message this morning. I said, ‘Kamala, congratulations. Shyamala would have been very proud.’”