Inspiring struggle

Kamala Devi Harris has added a new chapter to the 230-year history of the US presidential system by winning the recent US elections and taking oath as the first-ever female vice-president of the United States.

Kamala's mother migrated from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to the US where she married a native of Jamaica. However, Kamala was raised by her Hindu mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris. California-born Kamila once informed that she used to visit Hindu temples along with her mother. According to The New York Times, when Kamala was contesting the elections for California Attorney General, she contacted her aunt Sarala Gopalan in Chennai and asked her to break coconuts for good luck at a local Hindu temple there.

Kamala also had to face discrimination and prejudice in the United States due to her South Asian and African background. In an interview with American media, she shared childhood memories that children in the neighborhood were not allowed to play with her. However, the high-spirited Kamala Devi never allowed such inequalities in society to become hurdles in achieving her noble goals.

Kamala always raised her voice for the protection of the rights of women, children and other marginalized communities of society. As a US senator, she also played a significant role to support the plights of Rohingya Muslims by co-sponsoring the Burma Human Rights and Freedom Act. When India imposed a lockdown in Occupied Kashmir and tried to seize the rights of India's local Muslim minority community through controversial Indian citizenship act, Kamala Devi openly showed solidarity with the vulnerable Kashmiri people and criticized the Modi regime.

In her personal life, the man Kamala Devi married already had two children from his first marriage, but Kamala Harris decided to take care of the children like their actual mother. In my view, Kamala Harris is a role model for every person in the world, especially women. That’s why this week when I was invited by the National Institute of Management for delivering a guest lecture to bureaucrats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the topic of marginalized communities, I decided to highlight the inspiring struggle of Kamala Harris as well.

On the occasion, I emphasized that every society consists of a few unwanted extremist elements who target vulnerable marginalized communities for achieving their vested interests. It is commonly believed that marginalized communities are mostly religious minorities. However, in my lecture, I urged that in addition to religious minorities, there are other segments of our society who are suffering from severe problems and are deprived of their rights.

In my view, women, facing gender discrimination, are on top of the list of vulnerable marginalized communities. Similarly, people with physical or mental disabilities, children and senior citizens also deserve our special attention. If a member of the above mentioned segments belong to any religious minority community, then the impact of his/her socio-economic problems intensifies immensely. We must understand that every religion in the world teaches that we help the oppressed and vulnerable communities.

The inspiring life story of newly-elected US Vice President Kamala Harris indeed demonstrates that one should never lose hope at any cost. The neighbors of Kamala Devi who once used to forbid their children from playing with the child Kamala are now seeing her become the most powerful woman of the superpower America. I believe that she will take many concrete measures to maintain trust among different segments of the US population, and to establish cordial relations with the international community, especially third-world countries.

There is also a lesson for us that in order to transform our beloved motherland Pakistan into a peaceful, prosperous and developed country, we need to ensure that every citizen of Pakistan must be treated equally under the Article 25 of our constitution.

The writer is a member of the National Assembly and patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council.

Twitter: @RVankwani