Indian-origin Kamala Harris has been named as vice-presidential nominee by Democrats for the upcoming polls in the United States. Her very nomination is a mark of the greatness of the Americans – an open-minded approach to matters, citizenship, leadership, and rights of individuals.
In a land where the European-origin White population held sway for generations, no one is left behind today. Barack Obama who became president twice was half African and full Black. If Democratic Senator Kamala Harris wins the election, she could also follow the footsteps of Joe Biden to later stake claim for the president’s post. The chance for an Indian-origin American to become the head of the nation is there in the distant horizon.
The openness of America is its great strength. Also, even an Indian rising to that elevated position there will have his or her loyalty fully fixed on America, a nation made ‘great’ by the people with their love, commitment and adulation for the land they were born in. America is a land of settlers from around the world, who dared the seas, reached up there generations ago, and migrate to even today, to finally take full citizenship rights.
No other nation in the world is so open or accommodative about ‘others’. Those who live and work in the Gulf, turn their blood into sweat to build the sultanates or emirates, will have to pack up and exit from the land the day their work/business visa expires. Russia, which was the epi-centre of the so-called all-encompassing Communist ideology, is ‘racist’ to the core and would keep others at a distance. China has its own nationalist streak to keep others at bay. A nation that comes nearer to the US in this respect is Singapore, where too, large sections of the people are of Chinese, Asian, Indian and wider Malay origin. Chinese settlers have the upper hand while an Indian had functioned as titular president.
This openness and regard for merit are what make both the US and Singapore great nations of the world. This shows up in their growth in economic and other fields. Singapore is only the size of a district in India, but such is its well-being that no one from the island nation wants to go out or settle down elsewhere. Consider the scenario in India, the land that preached Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (World is One Family. How open-minded are we as individuals, and collectively in the political consciousness, is worth an examination. The slogans of globalization and ‘unity’ of mankind are mostly, deceitful, empty, or self-serving rhetoric.