Indian Americans Take the Stage at the Democratic National Convention Which Began With Hindu Prayers

The third day of the Democratic National Convention saw prominent Indian Americans taking the stage to share their experiences with Vice President Kamala Devi Harris and support her candidacy for president. 

Actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer Mindy Kaling emceed the primetime segment of the convention yesterday (July 21). She introduced herself as “an incredibly famous Gen Z actress who you might recognize from ‘The Office,’ ‘The Mindy Project,’ or as the woman who courageously outed Kamala Harris as Indian in an Instagram cooking video.” The 2019 cooking video that went viral, saw the then-senator who had launched her presidential bid, cooking dosas with Kaling. 

“We immediately hit it off,” Kaling said, recalling the day Harris came to her home in Los Angeles to make dosas. They talked about their mothers, who had both passed away from cancer, she told the attendees. “Both of our mothers were immigrants from India who came to America and committed their lives to serving others,” she said. Kaling’s mother was an OB-GYN and Harris’ mother was a cancer researcher scientist in the field.

“But the thing I remember the most about the vice president,” Kaling said, “is that Kamala Harris can cook,” and was “Guys, she was “so much better than me.” But, Harris also knew that Kaling’s family was watching, “so as she gently corrected my sloppy dosa making, she was complimenting me every step of the way,” she recalled.

In her speech, Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, emphasized the importance of reproductive rights and abortion as major election issues. She blasted Donald Trump and JD Vance for their stance on women’s rights, and contrasted it by highlighting Harris’s commitment to restoring reproductive freedom.  “Do we want a president who said women should be punished for having abortions, or a president who trusts women,” she asked the crowd. “A vice president who voted against protecting fertility treatment, or a vice president who used fertility treatment to start a family? A president who created the crisis we’re in, or a president who will fix it?”

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Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval also took the stage to support the Harris-Walz ticket. “I am the first Asian American mayor in the great city of Cincinnati,” said the son of a Tibetan refugee mother and an Indian father. He shared his experience with the Biden-Harris administration and talked about the Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati which is “a vital connector between Ohio and Kentucky.” For years, politicians, including former president Donald Trump, “came through my city and promised to fix the Brent Spence Bridge,” he said. “Joe Biden told Cincinnatians, we’re going to fix that damn bridge. And four months later, he signed the bipartisan infrastructure law,” he told the attendees, and added that the bill would “stitch our communities back together” and “finally resolve the decades-old issue with the Brent Spence Bridge.”

The evening began with an invocation in Sanskrit and English by Rakesh Bhatt, a Hindu priest at the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Maryland. “Even if we have differences, when it comes to the nation, we have to be united and it moves us towards justice for all,” he said. “We are one universal family. Truth is our foundation and always prevails. Lead us from unreal to real. from darkness to the light, and from death to immortality.”