As Joe Biden is all set to take the oath as the 46th US President, many believe Democrats’ soft stance towards immigrants might bring some good news for India.

It was in 1972, when 29-year-old Joe Biden received a letter from India’s financial capital Mumbai on becoming one of the youngest senators. The sender shared his last name with Biden. Soon after that Joe Biden learnt that his “great, great, great, great , great grandfather” had worked with East India Company.

“There are five Bidens in Mumbai, India,” Joe Biden, then US Vice President told an audience in Washington in 2015 at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of India-US civil nuclear deal.

In 2013 too, during his trip to Mumbai as the US Vice President, he spoke about this letter he received when he became the senator for the first time several decades ago.

The US President-elect is known for giving a personal touch to his work. In the past during his time as a senator and then the Vice President of the US, he had gone out of the way to favour India,

While Biden is yet to follow up on his relatives in India, Kamala Devi Harris’s relations with India are well established. In fact, it is for the first time that an Indo-American woman has been elected as the Vice President of the US.

Kamala Harris is born to a Jamaican father and a Tamilian mother from Chennai. India has also welcomed Harris’s win in the elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday congratulated her and said that it is a moment of pride for all Indo-Americans.


In fact, many believe that Harris’s India relation has helped her appease Indo-American voters into voting for Democratic Party. It is also because of Biden and Harris’s soft stance on immigrants.

As Joe Biden is all set to take oath as the 46th President of the United States, many believe the Democratic Party’s soft stance towards immigrants might bring some good news for India.

Harris is herself the daughter of two immigrant parents, she has often been called as ‘the most outspoken ally of immigration activists’ and has a senator and Attorney General of California, she has always worked towards empowering immigrants, several media reports have said.

According to several media reports, last year, she even unveiled an immigration plan to remove the threat if deportation from undocumented immigrants via executive action and expand deferred action immigration programs.

On a similar note, Joe Biden is also known for being more liberal towards Indians living in America and is expected to be softer towards Indian immigrants who want to study, work or live in the country.

Many media reports claim that Biden is also in favour of the family-based immigration and is likely to increase the number of visas offered for permanent, work-based immigration and reform the temporary visa system for high-skill, specialty jobs while eliminating the limits on employment-based green cards.

So, as the US President, Joe Biden in all his likelihood is expected to take ahead America’s friendship with India given the fact that he has always advocated stronger relations between the two nations.

Biden, in 2006 said, “My dream is that in 2020, the two closest nations in the world will be India and the United States.”

It was Biden who in 2008 vouched for the Indo-US nuclear deal in the US Congress. He also led to the approval of India as ‘Major Defence Partner’ a title which helps in sharing the advanced and critical technology between countries to strengthen defence ties.

Joe Biden at many occasions including his campaign document has been vocal about China’s hostility in the South Asian region. He has been intolerant about Pakistan’s terrorism in the global scenario.

“A Biden Administration will also work with India to support a rules-based and stable Indo-Pacific region in which no country, including China, is able to threaten its neighbours with impunity,” his campaign document said.

Nevertheless, the picture will become clearer when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office in January 2021.