US presidential election: Prosecutor vs felon

Reportedly mentored in her formative years by her maternal grandfather P.V. Gopalan, a progressive Indian civil servant in the Nehruvian era, the current vice-president of the United States of America, Kamala Devi Harris, stands on the threshold of history.

If the majority support she has received from the nearly 4,000 delegates who will attend the Democratic Party convention starting 19 August translates to a nomination, she will become the first person of Indian origin to stand for election for the most powerful post in the world. If elected, she will also break the glass ceiling by becoming America’s first woman president.

Within 48 hours of President Joseph Biden endorsing her as the Democratic presidential candidate on 21 July, she had — according to a Reuters/Ipsos US-wide poll among registered voters — taken a two-percentage point lead over the Republican Party nominee Donald Trump: 44 per cent to 42 per cent.

In a 24-hour blitzkrieg after Biden announced he was abandoning his re-election bid, Harris — who said she would ‘earn and win’ the nomination — moved into an almost unassailable lead, with heavyweight Democrats and caucuses extending their support, and her campaign fund simultaneously doubling.

All 23 Democratic state governors and every Democratic Party chair in the 50 American states backed her, as did former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hilary Clinton, erstwhile secretary of state who lost to Trump in the 2016 contest for the White House. Influential black and Hispanic groups, too, immediately lined up behind Harris.

Initially, another former president, Barack Obama, while commending Biden on his courageous move, was silent on endorsing Harris. "We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead," he wrote. "But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges."

Harris’ candidature is expected to become official well before the Democratic convention, with a running mate likely to be in place by 7 August. A vetting procedure is underway and informed circles believe the selection could be a Democrat from one of the swing states. Among these are Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper and Arizona senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut.

Before Biden pulled out, historian Allan Lichtman, who specialises on the US presidency, told CNN it would be a “foolish, self-destructive escapade” to do so. He pointed out, the “White House party almost always wins”, citing the example of incumbent vice-president George Bush (Senior), who, five months before election day in 1988, was 17 percentage points behind Michael Dukakis. Yet he won.

In 1968, vice-president Hubert Humphrey became the Democratic nominee after President Lyndon Johnson pulled out. Humphrey was defeated by Republican Richard Nixon. In 1952, Democratic president Harry Truman decided not to seek a second term. Adlai Stevenson, who replaced him, lost to Republican Dwight Eisenhower. Is history against Harris?

When biologist Shyamala Gopalan, who brought up Kamala as a single mother, arrived in America in 1958, there were barely 12,000 Indians in the country. With the revised immigration law of 1965, the community grew briskly. Today, it numbers four-and-a-half million; 60 per cent of whom arrived after 2000, when the demand for tech workers resulted in an influx of Indian migrants. There are five Indian American members in Congress or the federal legislature, and nearly 40 in state legislatures: the highest number as per AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) data cited in the New York Times.

Prominent Indian settlers included academics from Andhra Pradesh, Krish and Lakshmi Chilukuri, whose daughter Usha, a lawyer, is married to Trump’s vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance, a senator from Ohio. NYT wrote: "Mrs. Vance’s parents are Democrats, according to recent voter registration records." It continued: "Mrs. Vance herself is something of a political enigma. She was a registered Democrat until at least 2014… Even as her husband has gone from a 'Never Trump' critic to a fervent supporter of Mr. Trump, she has said little publicly or privately about her own politics."

Religion News Service, a 90-year-old American publication, added: "When J.D. Vance was introduced at the Republican national convention… as Donald Trump’s newly designated running mate, the most notable debut for many Americans was not the senator but the woman at his side: Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, a Hindu and the Telegu-speaking daughter of Indian immigrants."

Furthermore: "She is at first glance a surprising partner for Vance, who made his name as a champion of the white American underclass and has talked baldly of integrating his Christian faith into governance. But in a Fox News interview recorded before Trump tapped Vance as his choice for veep, the senator, a former atheist who converted as an adult to Catholicism, credited Usha’s faith with inspiring his own spiritual journey."

There is hope among Republicans that Usha Vance might wean Indian Hindu voters away from the Democrats. But analysts feel this could be limited as online trolls have already come out in droves to deride her Hindu identity.

Since the 2002 Gujarat riots, Hindus in the US have become polarised between pro- and anti- Modi camps, with the former shrill in their defence of Modi over the past decade. At the same time, until the last US presidential election, a majority of Indian-American Hindus voted for the Democratic nominee, as did Indian American Muslims and Sikhs.

Trump was perceived to be riding a wave after the failed assassination attempt against him and last week’s crowning at the Republican Party convention. But Tory Gavito, president of Way to Win, a US hub for donors with a data-based approach to political funding, told the UK’s Guardian: “President Biden has looked at all the data, and he has endorsed Kamala Harris, which means he’s making a plan based on real data.”

California governor Gavin Newsom, hitherto touted as a contender if Biden withdrew, threw his weight behind Harris, posting on X, "No one is better to prosecute the case against Donald Trump’s dark vision and guide our country in a healthier direction than America’s Vice President, @KamalaHarris." Washington DC senator Patty Murphy echoed: "Prosecutor running against a felon."

Harris was previously described by sections of US media as being "out of her depth" as vice-president. In the past year, though, she has come into her own, vigorously defending women’s reproductive rights to challenge Trump’s anti-abortion plank and the 2022 US Supreme Court judgement, which repealed a 1973 ruling to the contrary.

Notably, a survey said 63 per cent of Americans concur with her. She has also highlighted the Biden administration’s significant successes in controlling the Covid-19 pandemic, creating record employment, restoring racial justice and rebuilding creaking infrastructure. Last month, inflation dropped to 2.97 per cent following a stubborn resistance for three-and-a-half years.

Indeed, Biden may have an ace up his sleeve — sealing a welcome truce between Israel and Hamas; the glory of which Harris could conceivably bask in.

A lawyer by training, Harris is, arguably, still work in progress as a politician. She will encounter a savage opponent in Trump, who cannot help being abusive, racist and misogynistic. But she has the experience to forensically expose the felon in Trump, who is having to pivot from a long-rehearsed script on Biden to a sensitive line of attack on a non-white woman.

India will undoubtedly rejoice if Harris wins. It should not, though, forget her remarks after meeting with Modi in 2021, where she publicly reminded him: "It is imperative that we defend democratic principles and institutions within our respective countries."

She added: "I know from personal experience and from my family, of the commitment of the Indian people to democracy and to freedom and to the work that… can be done to… achieve our vision for democratic principles and institutions."