India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru once remarked, “Events crowd in upon us in such quick succession that we are apt to miss their true significance.” The American Vice President Kamala Devi Harris is forging ahead of former President Donald John Trump by leaps and bounds in the upcoming US Presidential Elections in all but one of the dozen different polls tracked by the polling aggregator 538 (originally rendered as FiveThirtyEight) after their effervescent Presidential Debate on 10th September 2024 in Philadelphia (colloquially referred to as “Philly”), the birthplace of American Independence famous for The State House Bell, now known as the Liberty Bell, which is at once recognizable by its discernible crack and bears the timeless message: “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof”. 538 gives Trump only a slender 39% chance of winning the electoral college while boosting Kamala’s odds to a clinching 61%! The Presidential Debate was a watershed moment for Kamala enabling her to steer confidently towards the Gettysburg ideal of “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. From the moment Kamala ascended onto the stage at the National Constitution Center and firmly shook Trump’s hand with amazing aplomb and élan to introduce herself, she displayed her unmistakable “I-am-in-command” credentials. It was an astute and pace-setting opening move! Since the two had never met before, her decision to shake his hand imbued her with astonishing maturity and gumption. Michael Richard Beschloss, the charismatic NBC News Presidential Historian and author of nine books, declared that Kamala had “delivered what is easily one of the most successful debate performances in all of American history”. On 21st September 2024, Kamala challenged Trump to another debate in the lead-up to the election and revealed that she had accepted a debate invitation from Cable News Network (“CNN”) on 23rd October 2024. Three other influential American poll pundits viz. Allan Lichtman (known as the “Nostradamus” of US presidential elections), Nate Silver and Alan Abramowitz have predicted Kamala’s victory. Significantly, Kamala has received full and unequivocal star power and celebrity endorsement throughout the length and breadth of Uncle Sam’s land. Mary Louise “Meryl” Streep, Jennifer Lynn Affleck (nee Lopez), popularly known as “J.Lo”, and Julia Fiona Roberts were among the celebrities who pitched for Kamala in a breezy online 90 minutes star-studded event hosted by Oprah Winfrey on 19th September 2024 on CBS News in Farmington Hills, Michigan, zeroing in on women’s reproductive rights that touched the innermost chords of voters from the fairer sex in the United States. And not to be outdone, Jane Seymour Fonda, Taylor Alison Swift and George Timothy Clooney are triggering the Kamala swing with impassioned gusto in the greatest republic, the greatest democracy and the greatest nation under the sun!
The name “Kamala” is a majestic name stemming from the ancient Sanskrit word meaning “lotus flower”. The lotus (botanical name “Nelumbo nucifera”) is a flower permeated with an enormous wealth of spiritual symbolism, inextricably linked to Hinduism and Buddhism. In Christianity, the lotus is associated with Thomas the Apostle and his twenty-year-old presence in India. He is regarded as the Patron Saint of India among its Christian adherents and the Feast of Saint Thomas on 3rd July is reverentially celebrated as Indian Christian Day. This is because he was brutally assassinated with a spear at St. Thomas Mount (previously Mylapore, the hallowed birthplace of the celebrated Tamil philosopher Valluvar and the Hindu saint and philosopher Peyalvar) in Chennai on 3rd July in AD 72 and his mortal remains were finally interred in the magnificent 1523 Portugese built Roman Catholic church St.Thomas Cathedral Basilca. I have visited St.Thomas Mount several times where the sculptured statue of Christ the King on the cross inside the St.Thomas Cathedral Basilca is flanked by two peacocks with his feet proudly resting on a lotus. The lotus is also mentioned in Job 40:21-22 in the Holy Bible: “Under the lotus plants it lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh. The lotuses conceal it in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround it.” Each religion lends a slightly varied touch, but the lotus invariably reflects spiritual awakening, purity, rebirth, creation and eternity. Fully grounded in the earth, the lotus heeds the call of the sun each morning, breaks the surface of the water and blooms untouched by the mud; each petal remains clean and pure. Closing at night, it sinks below the water’s surface, only to resurface again in the morning. Lord Gautam Buddha aptly observed, “As the lotus rises on its stalk unsoiled by the mud and water, so the wise one speaks of peace and is unstained by the opinions of the world.” And here I am irresistibly drawn to the inimitable Washington born American actress Goldie Jeanne Hawn who received the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her stellar performance in Cactus Flower in 1969. Even though Hawn’s mother Laura (née Steinhoff) was the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Hungary and she was brought up as a Jewish girl, Hawn became deeply involved in Buddhist philosophy way back in 1972 and is today a practising Buddhist and proudly claims, “Buddhism is my religion and Judaism is my tribe.” Notably, in her well-known memoir entitled “A Lotus Grows in the Mud” co-authored in 2005 with the renowned British novelist Wendy Holden, she reverberated the thoughts of Buddha, “The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. To grow and gain wisdom, first, you must have the mud — the obstacles of life and its suffering…The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life… Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles: sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one.” Before taking leave of Buddhism and its association with the lotus, I am highly emboldened to advert to you the incredible story of the fabulous mystic, master scholar and outrageous yogi Padmasambhava, the Lotus-Born, who was miraculously born from within a lotus with a thousand petals in the middle of a lake in the land of Oddiyana, having been sent as a meteor from the heart of the “Buddha of Boundless Light” and went on to live for more than five hundred years. He is also known as “Guru Rinpoche” or “Precious Master” and is revered by Tibetans as the real founder of Buddhism in Tibet who subjugated demons, transformed a huge fire into the lotus-shaped Rewalsar Lake (also known as “Tso Pema”) located in the mountains of the Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh and spread Buddha’s message far and wide with a missionary zeal. Harris is a name of diverse origins across the globe. The name is traditionally patronymic as it’s often tied to Harrison, meaning “son of Harry”. It was most popularly used as a surname in England and Wales in the days of yore. Harris has seeds in the names Harry and Henry, meaning “home ruler” in both German and Old English. Harris is also a variant of the Scandinavian name Harold, meaning “army ruler.” Harrisburg (named after the 17th century Yorkshire-born American businessman John Harris Sr who landed in Philadelphia with just sixteen guineas [equivalent to four ounces of gold] in his pocket!), situated on the east bank of the Susquehanna River, is the capital city of the U.S. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the seat of Dauphin County. Harrison City is situated in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Significantly, William Henry Harrison was the ninth and shortest serving President of the United States, as he was the first President to die in harness. His grandson Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States.
Kamala was born on 20th October 1964 at 9.28 pm at Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland, California. And here it would not be out of place to mention that the popular 28-year-old Oakland-born 5’10’’ tall chocolate-addicted actress and singer Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman effusively remarked in the Dec 2015/Jan 2016 issue of the New York-based fashion and entertainment bi-monthly magazine COMPLEX, “Oakland kids are always the best”! Kamala’s Chennai-born and bred mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a biologist who arrived in the United States from India in 1958 at the tender age of 19 to enroll in graduate school in endocrinology at the University of California ("UC"), Berkeley. An intensive research career of over 40 years ensued, during which her work on the progesterone receptor gene led to pioneering advances in breast cancer treatment. Kamala’s Jamaican-African father Donald Jasper Harris arrived in the United States from Jamaica in 1961 on an Elias A. Issa Scholarship (founded and funded by the House of Issa at the behest of the Kingston merchant Elias A. Issa in 1938) and enrolled in UC Berkeley to specialize in development economics. The first Afro-American scholar to be granted tenure at the Department of Economics at Stanford University, he now enjoys the coveted emeritus status there. The Stanford Daily in November 1976 described Harris as a Marxist scholar the university viewed as “too charismatic, a pied piper leading students astray from neo-classical economics”. Kamala’s parents met in the fall of 1962 at a meeting of the Afro-American Association at UC, Berkeley, and got married on 5th July 1963 without following the convention of introducing Harris to Shyamala’s parents beforehand or having the ceremony in her native place. The couple had another daughter Maya Lakshmi Harris who was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, on 30th January, 1967. Maya is today a versatile lawyer, public policy advocate and writer. Kamala’s marriage to Dough foundered and the couple separated and were officially divorced in 1972. Shyamala won custody of the two children a year later. Thereafter, the children were raised largely by their mother but saw their father only on weekends. While growing up, Kamala maintained close contact with her Indian family and frequently traveled with her mother and sister to Chennai. In her 2019 memoir “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey” Kamala wrote, “My mother, grandparents, aunts and uncle instilled us with pride in our South Asian roots. Our classical Indian names harked back to our heritage, and we were raised with a strong awareness of and appreciation for Indian culture.” At the same time, she wrote about her mother, “She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as Black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud Black women.” She also had a word of praise for her father whom she described as a “brilliant student”. And at the Democratic National Convention, she recalled with a sense of helpless nostalgia, “At the park, my mother would say, ‘Stay close.’ But my father would say, as he smiled, ‘Run, Kamala, run. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you.’ From my earliest years, he taught me to be fearless.” Kamala studied political science and economics at Howard University, a historically Black college. While there, she pledged to the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, one of the “Divine Nine” sororities and fraternities founded by Black students. She was also on the debating team and was elected to the student council. After graduating from Howard in 1986, Kamala earned a law degree from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly known as Hastings College) in 1989.
After gaining a law degree, Harris worked as a deputy district attorney in the city of her birth Oakland from 1990-98, earning a reputation for solidity as she prosecuted cases of gang violence, drug trafficking, sexual abuse, homicide and robbery. In March 1994, San Francisco Chronicle’s legendary columnist Herb Caen described the scene at former San Francisco Speaker and Mayor Willie Lewis Brown’s surprise 60th birthday party. Brown had a penchant for dating much younger women. The celebrated Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood Jr. (who served for two years as the Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California!), was there, wrote Caen, and he “spilled champagne on the Speaker’s new steady, Kamala Harris.” In his column, Caen described Kamala as “something new in Willie’s love life. She’s a woman, not a girl.” The relationship (which Kamala described later as “an albatross hanging around my neck”) ended in smoke after two years, but her connection to Brown, three decades her senior, did have a tremendous effect on her career and helped boost her connections across San Francisco high-society and California political elite. In 1998, Kamala was named Managing Attorney of the Career Criminal Unit of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office where she prosecuted three strike cases and serial felony offenders. She then served as the head of the San Francisco City Attorney’s Division on Families and Children. She rose determinedly through the ranks, becoming the first African American and South Asian American woman District Attorney in 2004 in San Francisco’s history, a post she held with distinction till 2010. Kamala’s mother Shyamala died of colon cancer in Oakland on 11th February, 2009, at the age of 70. Later in 2009, Kamala carried her mother’s ashes to Chennai and one one sunny morning walked down with her uncle to the beach in Besant Nagar where she used to stroll with her grandfather as a child and scattered the ashes on the waves. As a trailblazer throughout her entire life and career, Kamala was deeply attached to her mother and never fails to talk about the lessons she learned from her mother in glowing terms. In a Facebook post on 8th May 2022, on the occasion of Mother’s Day, 2022, she recalled, “My mother would often say to me: ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things. Make sure you are not the last'. This instantly brings to my mind the immortal words of Abraham “Abe” Lincoln, the towering sixteenth President of the United States who is universally hailed as the father of modern democracy (about whom Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian [one time British Ambassador to the United States], in a letter to Nehru written on New Year's Eve, 1935, wrote, “I think that the greatest political figure that the democratic world has thrown up is Abraham Lincoln”) - “The greatest lessons I have ever learned were at my mother's knees... All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” and “I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” Kamala’s best-selling book “Smart on Crime” was co-written with the well-known California-based writing collaborator and content consultant Joan O’C. Hamilton in 2009 was considered a model for dealing with the problem of criminal recidivism. In 2010, she succeeded Edmund Gerald “Jerry” Brown Jr. as California’s attorney general, becoming the first female, Black and South Asian attorney general to be catapulted to that office. After taking office in 2011, she demonstrated political sagacity. One of Kamala’s crowning accomplishments as attorney general came in 2012 when she, along with 40 other attorney generals, reached a multi-billion dollar deal (five times higher than that originally offered which she rejected as “crumbs on the table” despite pressure from the administration of President Barack Obama!) with five U.S. banks that settled over flawed mortgage foreclosure practices. The deal provided relief to those affected by those unfair practices, with the average eligible homeowner receiving $20,000 in mortgage aid. Her refusal to defend Proposition 8 (2008), which banned same-sex marriage in California, helped lead to its being overturned in 2013. Though Kamala had personally opposed the death penalty earlier in her career, she announced in 2014 that she would appeal a federal court ruling that declared it unconstitutional because delays in capital punishment in the state rendered it cruel and unusual. Years later, as a senator and during her 2020 run for President, Kamala pushed for a federal moratorium on the death penalty after California Governor Gavin Christopher Newsom signed an executive order halting executions in the state. In 2012, Kamala delivered a memorable address at the Democratic National Convention, elevating her national profile to dizzy heights. On 22nd August 2014, she tied the knot with Douglas “Doug” Craig Emhoff, a New York-born Jewish-American entertainment lawyer (who is presently a partner at the global law firm DLA Piper), at the iconic Santa Barbara County Courthouse (the jaw-dropping, gorgeous example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture marked by its distinctive four-faced clock tower!) at a small and intimate ceremony presided over by Maya…Doug wore a garland as a nod to Kamala’s Hindu roots and she broke a glass to honour his Jewish heritage! Interestingly, the two first met in 2013 on a blind date set up by a mutual friend Chrisette Hudlin (now the wife of the noted Afro-American Hollywood director-producer Reginald Alan Hudlin), a public relations consultant, in Los Angeles. They now have a wonderful blended family embellished by their two “brilliant, talented, funny kids” Ella and Cole (brought into this world by Dough’s first film producer wife Kerstin Mackin)…named after two Afro-American celebrities viz. John William Coltrane, the phenomenal Jazz saxophonist and band leader, and Ella Jane Fitzgerald, the monumental singer, songwriter and composer known the world over as the “First Lady of Song” and “Queen of Jazz”! Widely feted as a rising star within the party, Kamala was roped in to run for the US Senate seat held by Barbara Sue Boxer, who was on the verge of hanging up her gloves. In early 2015, Kamala declared her candidacy, and on the campaign trail, she doggedly battled for immigration and criminal justice reform, an increase in the minimum wage and protection of women’s reproductive rights.
Kamala joined the US Senate after being elected in 2016 and a new chapter in her checkered career unfolded. When she took office in January 2017, Kamala became the first Indian American and only the second Black American woman in the Senate; the first being Carol Moseley Braun. She joined the Congressional Black Caucus as well as the Congressional Asian-Pacific American Caucus. She also began serving on both the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Judiciary Committee, among other assignments. She became known for her prosecutorial style of addressing witnesses during hearings. In June, she drew particular attention for her questioning of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was testifying before the intelligence committee on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, after she had publicly called on him to hang up his boots. In 2016, Kamala was one of 17 attorney generals to reinforce efforts to fight climate change by addressing power plant greenhouse gas emissions. She joined a coalition led by New York Attorney General Eric Tradd Schneiderman to investigate whether fossil fuel companies had misled the public on the true impact of climate change. A year earlier, she defended President Obama's Clean Power Plan, which aimed to reduce emissions by 2030. She also supported the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards to limit gas emissions from oil and natural gas operations. During her tenure as attorney general, she reached several settlements with oil companies over alleged violations of state laws. In 2011, she announced a $24.5 million settlement with Chevron over allegations that it violated state hazardous materials and waste laws. Kamala later settled with BP West Coast in 2016 for alleged violations of state laws governing the operation and maintenance of underground gasoline tanks. In 2016, her office obtained a landmark $1.1 billion judgment against Corinthian Colleges, a chain based in Southern California.
In January 2019, Kamala published her memoir “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey”. Shortly thereafter, Kamala announced that she was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. From the word go, she was seen as one of the leading contenders, and she gained attention when, during a primary debate, she had a contentious exchange with fellow candidate Joseph “Joe” Robinette Biden Jr. over his opposition to school busing in the 1970s and ’80s, among other race-related topics. By September 2019, her campaign was in dire straits and in December she voluntarily dropped out of the race. She continued to maintain a high profile, notably becoming a leading advocate for social justice reform following the death of George Perry Floyd Jr, an African American who was murdered on 25th May 2020 by a white police officer Derek Michael Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a Cup Foods grocery store clerk suspected Floyd of having used a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill. Her valiant efforts muzzled all her detractors who had questioned her tenure as attorney general, alleging that she had failed to investigate charges of police misconduct, including questionable shootings. As racial injustice emerged as a major issue in the United States, many Democrats emphatically mulled the idea of Biden choosing an African American as his vice presidential running mate. In August, Biden chose Kamala and she thus became the first Black woman to appear on a major party’s national ticket. On 20th January 2021, Kamala was sworn in as Vice President – the first woman, the first Black American and the first South Asian American to be elected to this position. After she was elected Vice President, Kamala thanked her mother, crediting her with her success in her victory speech in a voice choked with visible emotion, “To the woman most responsible for my presence here today, my mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who is always in our hearts…When she came here from India at the age of 19, she maybe didn't quite imagine this moment, but she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible.”
On 23rd June 2023, Kamala hosted a grand State Luncheon in honour of the visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Harry S. Truman Building in Washington, D.C. In her welcome speech, Kamala said, “And around our country, we see the impact of Indian Americans, from the C suites of American companies to neighborhood businesses, from the studios of Hollywood to university research labs across our country. So, as many of you know, India is a very important part of my life. When my sister Maya and I were growing up, our mother would take us from the Bay Area to India pretty much every other year. And the purpose of those trips were many, including that we would well understand where she came from, what produced her; so that we could spend time with our grandparents, with my uncle and our chittis; and to understand the love of good idli. And we traveled to visit my grandparents in what was then called Madras. And I will tell you, my grandfather was one of the most favorite people in my life, truly..on those visits, I was the only member of our family that my grandfather allowed to join him for his morning routine…Throughout these walks, I recall my grandfather teaching me lessons about not just what it means to have a democracy but to keep a democracy. And I do believe it is these lessons that I learned at a very young age that first inspired my interest in public service... In fact, it is a large part of who I am today — these lessons I learned from my grandfather, P.V. Gopalan, and the dedication, determination, and courage of his daughter, my mother, Shyamala. And it is the reason that I stand before you today as vice president of the United States. The history and teachings in India and of India have not only influenced me, but they, of course, have shaped the entire globe…Throughout history, India has inspired millions of people around the world, whether through philosophy and theology, the power of civil disobedience, or the commitment to democracy…As we look toward the future, the United States and India, the world’s oldest and largest democracies, instinctively turn to each other and are increasingly aligned.” It is indeed a happy coincidence that Modi is right now firmly ensconced on American soil on an action pact visit and has already participated in the fourth Quad Leaders Summit in Biden’s hometown Wilmington in Delaware, which was also attended by Kamala. Modi and Kamala are bound to have had a tête-à-tête on the sidelines of the Summit or otherwise!
As Biden’s Vice President, Kamala was tasked with addressing the root causes of increased migration from Latin America to the American southern border, promoting national legislation to protect voting rights and preserving women’s access to abortion, which was significantly stifled in many states following the 2022 controversial ruling in Dobbs vs.Jackson Women’s Health Organization in which the US Supreme Court held that the Constitution of the United States did not confer the right to abortion. Kamala became a vocal and effective crusader for the right to complete reproductive health care, including abortion, and continued that theme as part of Biden’s 2024 campaign. As President of the Senate, Kamala cast the most tie-breaking votes in history, shattering a nearly 200-year-old record. On 21st July 21, 2024, Biden unilaterally suspended his campaign for re-election in 2024 and endorsed Kamala for President. Kamala was endorsed by Jimmy Earl Carter, William Jefferson, Bill Clinton, Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, Obama and Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus, and many other leading Democrats. In the first 24 hours of her candidacy, her campaign raised $81 million in small-dollar donations, the highest single-day total of any presidential candidate in American history. By 5th August 2024, Kamala had officially secured the nomination via a virtual roll call of delegates. The next day, she announced Minnesota Governor Tim James Walz as her vice presidential running mate. On 22nd August 2024, the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention, Kamala officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president and her acceptance was certified by the Democratic National Committee. She thus became the first Black woman and the first Asian American in U.S. history to win the presidential nomination of a major party.
I do not possess a crystal ball, but I'm willing to bet one of my arms right now that Kamala is the most clearly positioned heir to the White House. The eyes of the world are upon Kamala intently watching this Afro-American Vice President (through whose veins the sacred blood of India flows in abundant measure!) as she braces herself for the most challenging Presidential trial of strength that lies ahead of her…indomitable, unflinching, unswerving and relentless! Victory shall be hers and her victory shall be the victory of every single woman on earth! God bless Kamala! God bless America!
A BRIEF NOTE ON THE AUTHOR
The author is an internationally reputed senior lawyer practising in the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts and Tribunals in India. He has been closely associated with some of the topmost Indian corporates as a lawyer and advisor. He addressed a select gathering of MPs and other eminent persons in the House of Lords in February 2009 and was awarded the prestigious “Ambassador of Peace Award”. In April 2009, he was also invited to the House of Commons. He was also invited by Chatham House and by the Universal Peace Federation in London several times. He is an avid debater, public speaker, writer, broadcaster, telecaster, artist, painter, sculptor, music critic and filmmaker.
India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru once remarked, “Events crowd in upon us in ...
