Recently, Kamala Harris was selected as the Vice- Presidential running mate, by the US Presidential nominee Joe Biden. She was a Presidential candidate last year and described herself as a ‘progressive prosecutor’. But, she dropped out from the list later and her record as a prosecutor received criticism. Her career standpoints have portrayed Indian political behavior. Here is a list of things that make Kamal Harris similar to Indian politicians.
Indian descent
Kamal is of mixed-race ancestry, born to an immigrant academic couple. Her mother is Indian- American and father are from Jamaica. She was the San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011, and California attorney general from 2011 to 2017.
Woman of many firsts
Today, Harris is the first Black woman and first Asian American vice-presidential candidate. And in the past two decades, she has become the first Black woman to be California’s district attorney, the first woman to be California’s attorney general, and also the first Indian American senator.
Victim to criticism
With all the bunch of achievements came along the criticism. The incident of police brutality was not well addressed by Harris as the attorney general. In 2015, no action was taken by her, when a 26-year old was shot 21 times by police officers. But, she marched beside protesters after the killing of Floyd. She also championed proposals to make lynching a federal crime and co- authorized a bill to ban police chokehold in the Senate.
Inconsistent stance
In 2010, Harris as the state attorney firmly opposed the use of recreational marijuana. And nearly 1,560 people were imprisoned for the same offense. While in 2018, she co-signed Senator Corey Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act which decriminalized marijuana at the federal level.
Varying opinions
Harris is swift in changing her opinions as per the situation. For instance, she had said that she supports the abolition of private health care, in a CNN town hall. Later denied her statement saying she had misheard the question. And now she supports Biden’s proposal to add a public insurance option to compete along with private plans.
Referring to Asian roots
Harris has always regarded herself as Black American. But, now she has been promoting herself with Asian descent as nearly 1.3 million Indian Americans are expected to vote in this year’s election.
Going clean
When there was a lot of speculation running around for the vice presidential nominee. Harris’s Wikipedia page was edited 500 times in the month of May and her controversial parts as the California Attorney General records were erased or edited.
Opportunistic
In 2019, Harris as a presidential candidate was debating against Biden over numerous issues. And here she is now standing next to Biden as his closet aide.
The very common practice observed in Indian politics is the rapidly changing of stances, opinions, and parties in a blink. And Kamala Harris’s political career depicts the same line of a work attitude.
