Vivek Ramaswamy slams Kamala Harris for selective use of Indian roots

US Vice President Kamala Harris’s ethnic identity has become a focal point in the US presidential election campaign, with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump making racial remarks and Indian-origin Republican Vivek Ramaswamy criticising her for using her Indian roots selectively.

“Many Indian-Americans in the US are indeed somewhat offended by the way Kamala has suddenly cast aside the Indian-American side of her identity,” Ramaswamy said in an interview with Fox News.

Harris, a Democrat, who launched her presidential campaign last month after US President Joe Biden bowed out from the White House bid, has long identified herself as both Black and Asian. She is the first Black and Asian-American person to serve as the Vice President.

Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is an Indian-American politician whose mother is Indian and father is Jamaican.

A small village in Thulasenthirapuram in Tamil Nadu is known as the ancestral home of US Vice-President Kamala Harris’s maternal grandparents.

KAMALA HARRIS WEARS A DIFFERENT IDENTITY NOW: RAMASWAMY

Vivek Ramaswamy, in an interview with Fox News, said, “My parents were immigrants to this country, legal immigrants from southern India, the very same part of India that her mother also immigrated from.”

Ramaswamy also recalled that Kamala Harris, emphasised her Indian-American heritage when she first ran for office in California as a Senator but now seems to “wear a different identity” on the national stage for political convenience.

He further said that Harris’ focus on identity politics invites criticism.

“I don’t think we should be relying on these ethnic identities at all. We’re American. And the problem is when you’re Kamala Harris and you actually do lean into your identity politics, then you open the door to that type of criticism,” he said.

He also added that Harris’s candidacy lacks a clear vision for the US.

“But if you ask me, that shouldn’t be how this election is decided one way or another. It should be decided on our own identity as Americans and what our vision is for the future of the country. And the number one thing missing in Kamala Harris’s candidacy is that she lacks that vision for the country. That’s what we’ve got to focus on,” Ramaswamy said.

The debate intensified after former President Donald Trump accused Harris of shifting her racial identity for political gain, claiming she “turned black” a few years ago despite her long-standing Indian heritage.

If Harris wins the upcoming presidential election, which is going to be held on November 5, she would make history as the first woman President of the United States.