WASHINGTON: Biden Recognized Incredible Contribution Of Indian American Community: Spokesperson

WASHINGTON: Biden Recognized Incredible Contribution Of Indian American Community: Spokesperson

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden recognised
the incredible contribution of the Indian American community when last week
during an interaction with NASA scientists involved in the Mars mission he said
that people of Indian descent were taking over the country, his spokesperson
said Thursday.

“I’ll
first say that the president was just recognising and honouring and valuing our
–this was his intention — the incredible contribution of Indian-Americans to
science,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her
daily news conference.

She was
responding to a question on the remarks by Biden last week when he said that
Indian Americans are taking over the country.

“Indian-of-descent
Americans (sic) are taking over the country. You (Swati Mohan), my vice
president (Kamala Harris), my speech writer (Vinay Reddy),” Biden said in
a virtual interaction with NASA scientists who were involved in the historic
landing of Perseverance at Mars.

Indian
American scientist Swati Mohan leads the guidance, navigation, and control
operations of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission.

“He
(Biden) was speaking to an Indian American woman who is, of course, a scientist
and an important part of the NASA team. And he also was, of course, recognizing
the incredible contribution of his own vice president,” Psaki said.

“He
just believes that it was a reflection of his belief that Indian-Americans
could make a great contribution to the fabric of society, whether it’s science
or education or the government. And that was what he was trying to
convey,” the White House Press Secretary said.

Biden,
who was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, has
created history by appointing at least 58 Indian Americans to key positions in
his administration. This does not include Vice President Kamala Harris, which
is an elected position, and Neera Tanden, who a day earlier withdrew her
nomination from the position of Director of White House Office of Management
and Budget.

Nearly
half of them are women and a sizable number of them are working in the White
House. So far, the Obama-Biden administration (2009-2017) has the distinction
of appointing the largest number of Indian-Americans in any administration, but
the previous Donald Trump administration was not far behind as it appointed the
first ever Indian-American with a cabinet rank and inside the National Security
Council.

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