Indian American Amish Shah, a physician and former state legislator, was elected to Congress after flipping Arizona’s 1st congressional district in one of the most closely watched races of the midterm elections. In an interview with HT, Shah spoke about his family’s journey to America, the rise in anti-Indian sentiment, and the future of United States (US)-India ties. Edited excerpts:
It was the late 1950s, in Zaveri Bazaar in Bombay (Mumbai). 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. And they started talking. Is the US-India relationship going to be a priority for you? What is your sense of the state of the relationship and the Trump administration’s handling of it? And will you be joining the India Caucus? Eventually, there will have to be a review of the US-India relationship. I think the tariffs were one of the big reasons we have 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.
