20 US Indians get Major Roles in Biden Administration

US President-elect Joe Biden has given 20 US Indians key positions in his administration ahead of his inauguration on January 20, 2021.

As many as 17 will be part of the White House while 13 will be women.

It is the first time that so many US Indians have been roped into a presidential administration before the inauguration.

Kamala Harris made history by becoming the first woman and first Indian-origin woman to become Vice President.

Neera Tanden has been nominated as Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget while Dr Vivek Murthy has been nominated as the US Surgeon General.

Vanita Gupta is set to become the Associate Attorney General Department of Justice.

On January 16, 2021, Biden nominated a former foreign service official Uzra Zeya as the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.

Indiaspora founder M R Rangaswami said: “The dedication that the Indian-American community has shown to public service over the years has been recognised in a big way at the very start of this administration!

“I am particularly pleased that the overwhelming majority are women.

“Our community has truly arrived in serving the nation.”

Mala Adiga has been appointed as Policy Director to the future First Lady Dr Jill Biden and Garima Verma would be the Digital Director of the Office of the First Lady, while Sabrina Singh has been named as her Deputy Press Secretary.

Aisha Shah will be Partnership Manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy and Sameera Fazili will occupy the key position of Deputy Director at the US National Economic Council (NEC) in the White House.

Bharat Ramamurti is another Deputy Director.

Gautam Raghavan will be Deputy Director in Office of Presidential Personnel. He previously served under the Obama Administration.

Vinay Reddy, who has been Biden’s top confident, has been named as Director Speechwriting.

Vedant Patel is set to occupy a seat in the White House lower press, behind the briefing room, as Assistant Press Secretary to the President. He is the third-ever US Indian to be part of the White House press shop.

Tarun Chhabra, Sumona Guha and Shanthi Kalathil will be part of the National Security Council of the White House.

Sonia Aggarwal has been named Senior Advisor for Climate Policy and Innovation in the Office of the Domestic Climate Policy at the White House while Vidur Sharma has been appointed as Policy Advisor for Testing for the White House COVID-19 Response Team.

Neha Gupta and Reema Shah have both been appointed to the Office of the White House Counsel.

During the campaign, Biden had implied that he would bring in a large number of US Indians.

In a video address on August 15, 2020, Biden had said:

“As President, I”ll also continue to rely on Indian-American diaspora, that keeps our two nations together, as I have throughout my career.

“My constituents in Delaware, my staff in the Senate, the Obama Biden administration, which had more Indian Americans than any other administration in the history of this country and this campaign with Indian Americans at senior levels, which of course includes the top of the heap, our dear friend (Kamala Harris) who will be the first Indian American vice president in the history of the United States of America.”