Opinions divided over Harris’s role in India Covid-19 efforts

INDIAN AMERICANS are divided on Vice President Kamala Harris’s role in response to India’s Covid-19 crisis, and conversations on whether she should do more have intensified along with the crisis, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Over 20 Indian Americans, including community leaders, political activists, public officials, told the newspaper that some are disappointed Harris has not been a ‘more prominent advocate’ during the crisis, while others argued she is doing her job well.

‘It teaches us the limits to representation. She is positioned as a lot of things to a lot of people. If you say you are representing this specific facet, you have to speak up when that facet- the population is hurting,’ Sujatha Shenoy, a 53-year-old journalist turned business student at the University of Chicago, who wrote a column criticizing Harris’s initial silence on the crisis, was quoted as saying.

Aditi Kharod, 22, a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina, said she appreciated the rise of a woman of Indian heritage to the vice presidency, but noted that the representation ‘rang hollow’ during what she described as India’s suffering.

‘I thought she might speak about it with some more emotion, considering she has family there. It would show that this is the reason why it’s important to have diversity at all levels of government.’ As Harris began to address the crisis a little more, Kharod softened some of her criticism,’ she said.

Harris’s critics said she could have used her platform to bring greater attention to India’s pain. However, her supporters said her actions on India are inherently limited by president Joe Biden’s larger agenda, just as they would be for any vice president.

‘I think, as an Indian American, what would be the most helpful thing is if she is a very good vice president,’ Shareen Punian, who held a fundraiser for Harris during the 2010 campaign for California attorney general, told the newspaper.

‘That integrates us as Indians into the broader American community, and we don’t have to be singled out as being different.’