The son of an Indian immigrant mother who came to the US to study in 1969, Shah will be among the six Indian American members of the House of Representatives. Amish Shah, a physician and former Arizona state legislator, is set to join Congress in January after flipping Arizona’s 1st congressional district, one of the most closely watched races of the US midterm elections. Speaking to HT on the sidelines of a press conference in Washington, Shah discussed his family’s journey to America, the rise in anti-Indian sentiment, and the future of US-India ties.
It was the late 1950s, in Zaveri Bazaar in Bombay. A man named Mark Howard, a retired judge from Michigan, was wandering around. This was before cell phones. It was a hot day, he nearly passed out, and he was clearly in trouble. So my mother’s elder brothers went out, took him in, brought him into the air conditioning and gave him a can of Coca-Cola. If you remember, at the time you could only get Thums Up in India. And they started talking. Eventually, there will have to be a review of the US-India relationship. I think the tariffs were one of the big reasons we’ve had some acrimony in the relationship. And not just for India but for the rest of the world, Congress should take that authority away from the President and reclaim it for itself, as is rightfully ours. Once that happens, we believe we can actually improve the US-India relationship.
He said, “Wow, I haven’t had Coca-Cola in some time.
