Salman Rushdie showed his support for Kamala Harris at a virtual ‘South Asian Men for Harris’ event
New York:
Mumbai-born author Salman Rushdie has endorsed Kamala Harris’ candidacy for the US presidency, saying he believes she is the person who can stop former President Donald Trump from dragging the country into authoritarianism.
Rushdie on Sunday expressed his support and support for US Vice President Harris at a virtual ‘South Asian Men for Harris’ event attended by dozens of leading names from the Indian-American community, including prominent lawmakers, authors, policy experts, entrepreneurs and diaspora organizations. .
“It’s a pivotal moment. I’m a Bombay boy and it’s great to see an Indian woman running for the White House. And my wife is African-American, so we like that a black and Indian woman is running for the White House.” White House,” Rushdie said.
Harris, 59, is the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee. She officially declared her candidacy after incumbent President Joe Biden withdrew from the race for a second term on July 20. The Democrats are expected to be officially declared presidential candidates next month.
The 77-year-old British-American novelist also noted that ethnicity in itself is not enough. “We wouldn’t gather like this, let’s say for Usha Vance or Nikki Haley,” he said, referring to the Indian-American wife of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance and the Indian-American former governor of South Carolina.
Rushdie emphasized that the momentum is due to the fact that in just under a week something “very extraordinary, transformative has happened in American politics.”
“The conversation has completely changed with the advent of Kamala Harris’ candidacy and it has changed in the most joyful way, one of optimism and positive, progressive thinking,” he said.
Rushdie underlined that the community must make that work because “we cannot allow the alternative to become reality.”
“This hollow man without any noble quality, who is trying to drag this country towards authoritarianism. That can’t happen,” he said, referring to Trump, 78, a Republican.
Rushdie expressed confidence that Harris “is the person who can prevent this. And so I’m 1,000 percent right for her.” He added that star power is important in America and you could argue that Trump’s celebrity status from being on TV for years helped him get elected to the White House in 2016.
“Well, right now he doesn’t look like the star. He looks like the old, fat man. Kamala looks like the superstar. And I think the charisma she brings to the campaign could be crucial in the coming weeks,” he says. said.
Responding to the question that there are skeptics in the country who believe America would not elect a woman of black and Indian descent as president, Rushdie said this may have been an argument just a decade ago, but times have changed. .
“I think the way female leadership is viewed now is different. The way to make the race issue positive is something new. And so I think there’s absolutely no reason why Kamala Harris wouldn’t win and actually win it. quite handy,” Rushdie said.
Underscoring that the tide is turning, Rushdie cited recent media polls that put Harris neck and neck with Trump, “which is a pretty big uptick from the last Biden poll.”
‘And it won’t even take a week. We can do this. We just have to believe in it.’ Rushdie called on people across the country, including the writing community, to “use every power we have, whether it’s speaking out, writing, arguing, we have to win this argument.” And writers are pretty good at arguing. So I think we’re going to do our best.” Noting that the November 5 presidential election is just 100 days away, Rushdie said: “There is not a minute to lose,” as he urged “aunts” and extended families to mobilize and vote for Harris in large numbers.
As communities ranging from South Asian to Indo-Caribbean come together and rally for Harris, Rushdie described their support as deeply moving.
“It’s moving in the way that these large gatherings of people have been moving in recent days. The gathering of black women, the gathering of white women, the gathering of Asian women, and now this event. It just shows that there is enormous power. in our coming together,” he said.
Rushdie underlined that “we cannot be complacent. We have to fight this down to the wire because it will probably go down to the wire, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be the first to cross the line. I believe we be able to “.
The event called on all South Asian men and women to gather, raise money and vote for “our first female president, Kamala Harris!” The event, co-hosted by CEO and co-founder of full-service digital agency Digimentors Sree Sreenivasan, featured prominent names including Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, South Asians co-founder for Harris Harini Krishnan and Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)