Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Indian immigrant mother and a Jamaican American father, became America’s first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president-elect on Saturday.
Her uncle, Gopalan Balachandran, lives in New Delhi. He spoke with CNN’s Vedika Sud about his niece’s win:
The wait is finally over. Kamala Harris is now vice president-elect. Your reaction?
I anticipated it. I told Kamala two days ago that they were going to win. We spoke for 10-15 minutes. The only difference this time was, there was tension involved … She will be an amazing VP. She has her values, she’ll stick to it.
Saturday was a historic day for Kamala Harris. Your thoughts.
Let me be honest, I think she is going to be one of the most active VP’s in US history. Right now the problems are so many civil rights: Black Lives Matter, coronavirus, the economy and so many things … Biden is a very responsible man, so I think he will offload quite a lot of these on Kamala’s shoulders, and she’ll be happy to do it. I think she’s going to very busy in the coming months in Washington.
Will you be flying down for Harris’ oath-taking ceremony?
Oh yeah! I will be going to Washington for her swearing-in. I was there when she was sworn-in as a senator. The whole family was there. I met Vice President Biden then. This time I hope to meet President Biden.
How much of an influence was your sister (Harris’ mother) Shyamala in Harris’ life?
Both Kamala and (her sister) Maya are like Shyamala, Kamala more so. She was a great influence, there is no doubt about it. She was the greatest influence.
