We are both daughters of India, in a way: Priyanka Chopra Jonas to US VP Kamala Harris
Washington(PTI): US Vice President Kamala Harris and actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas have reflected on their Indian connections, marriage equality, and climate change, as they shared a stage during a leadership forum here.
Chopra Jonas, who is now settled in Los Angeles, was invited by the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum last Friday to interview Harris for a fireside chat.
The actor kicked off the conversation with their Indian connection.
I think we're both daughters of India, in a way, Chopra Jonas told the room full of prominent Democrats invited to the conference from across the country.
You're a proud American-born daughter of an Indian mom and a Jamaican father. I am an Indian born of two physicians as parents and a recent immigrant to this country who totally still believes in the wholehearted...American Dream, she said.
Harris, 57, was born in Oakland California. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan migrated to the US from Tamil Nadu in India, while her father, Donald J Harris, moved to the US from Jamaica.
She is the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected US Vice President.
The US, Chopra Jonas said, s regarded as a beacon of hope, freedom, and choice for the whole world.
And these tenets are being endlessly assaulted right now, she said.
The actor, producer, and philanthropist said after working for over 20 years in films, it was only this year that she got paid equal to her male co-stars.
Chopra Jonas was most recently seen in Keanu Reeves-led "The Matrix Resurrections". She will next star in The Russo Brothers' series "Citadel" and "It's All Coming Back To Me", opposite Sam Heughan.
Chopra Jonas, 40, also touched upon the issue of marriage equality. She is married to American singer Nick Jonas, with whom she welcomed a baby girl in January 2022.
In her remarks, Harris acknowledged that right now they are living in an unsettled world.
I've been traveling around the world as Vice President. I've directly talked with 100 world leaders in person or by phone, she said, adding things that we long took for granted are now up for debate and question.
You look, for example, at Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine. We thought it was pretty well settled--the issue of territorial integrity and sovereignty -- and now that is up for some debate, given what's happening there, she noted.
Harris then quickly turned to issues in the US.
We look at our own country. We thought, surely with the Voting Rights Act and all that it stood for, we assumed and thought the issue of voting rights in America was settled, the US vice president added.
Then we had the Shelby v Holder decision. And then after the 2020 election, when more people voted and more young people voted than ever before, states around our country started systematically and intentionally making it more difficult for people to vote, Harris said.
The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 to ensure state and local governments do not pass laws or policies that deny American citizens the equal right to vote based on race. On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court swept away a key provision of this landmark civil rights law in Shelby County v Holder.
We thought a woman's right--a constitutional right--to make decisions about her own body was settled. No longer, said Harris.
The US Supreme Court recently overturned Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion.
Agreeing with her, Chopra Jonas said, Absolutely. You're so right. There's so much to navigate right now.
The actor also touched upon the climate change issue as she acknowledged the relief efforts in hurricane-hit Florida.
Extreme weather conditions like this are becoming more frequent and more severe. And I wanted to acknowledge the administration for passing the biggest climate legislation in history earlier this year because it is a fact that America's leadership sets an example to other major economies around the world, which are truly dragging their feet when it comes to doing their bit, Chopra Jonas, the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, said.
The crisis is real, and the clock is ticking. And the urgency with which we must act is without any question, Harris responded, stressing adapting to extreme weather conditions.
On the point that you made about disparities, you know, back when I was the district attorney of San Francisco, I started one of the first environmental justice units of any District Attorney's office in the country focused on this issue, she said.
As you have described rightly, it is our lowest income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions and impacted by issues that are not of their own making, Harris said.
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TVK falls short within touching distance; what next to ensure majority
Chennai (PIT): With TVK falling 10 short of a majority, its leader Vijay has the option of forming a minority government in Tamil Nadu without any outside support, analysts said on Tuesday.
Senior political analyst Sumanth Raman told PTI that the TVK is likely to opt to be a minority government with outside support.
"Since it is the single largest party, TVK has the option to go for that. I don't think he (Vijay) will opt for official support from other political party's MLAs", he said.
"If he opts for minority government, the only thing is that, Vijay will have to prove the support once again after six months".
Raman also pointed out that in 2006 when DMK won only 92 seats, the then party president, the late M Karunanidhi formed a minority government with outside support.
In a completely unexpected turn of events in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the TVK has emerged victorious, putting an end to the almost six decade-long dominance of the two major Dravidian parties--DMK and AIADMK.
By clinching victory in its debut electoral contest, the party has elevated its status to that of a recognised political entity. However, the Vijay-led TVK did not secure a mandate large enough to form a government with an absolute majority on its own, requiring another 10 to cross the finish line. Experts have varied opinions.
Specifically, to attain a simple majority, a political party must win at least 118 out of the total 234 constituencies. The TVK, however, secured victory in 108 constituencies. Given that the TVK fell short of the majority mark, what might unfold next?
TVK leader Vijay has won in both constituencies he contested--Perambur in Chennai and Tiruchirappalli East. As per the election commission rule, he will have to resign from one of these seats. TVK sources said that the leader is likely to surrender the Tiruchirappalli assembly seat.
If Vijay does so, the party's total tally of seats will decrease by one. Then it will be 107. Adding to the number games, TVK appointed Speaker of the Assembly will be ineligible to cast a vote during a confidence motion and the party's effective voting strength will be reduced by yet another seat, which comes to 106.
Accordingly, the TVK requires the support of an additional 12 members to demonstrate its majority. As of now, within the DMK alliance, the Congress party has secured five seats, the two Communist parties have won two seats each (totaling four), while the DMDK has secured one seat, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has won two seats and the VCK has secured two seats.
Within the AIADMK alliance, the PMK has grabbed four seats, the BJP has won one seat, and the AMMK has secured one seat. Going by the calculations, if TVK gets the support of other parties within both alliances, it would gain an additional 21 seats.
TVK could potentially secure a total of 129 seats (108 + 21). However, the TVK does not require the support of all those parties, and the backing of just 12 members would suffice.
As Vijay is expected to visit Lok Bhavan on Wednesday (May 6) to meet the governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar to stake claim to form government, the governor is expected to offer the TVK two options.
First, he may summon the TVK chief and instruct him to demonstrate his majority on the floor of the legislative assembly. Alternatively, he might ask Vijay to gather letters of support from "allied" parties and submit them to him.
If the TVK secures support exceeding 118 seats, the governor would invite the party form the government. If TVK fails to garner support from other political parties, it will be denied the opportunity to form the government.
In such a scenario, the governor has the option to invite the DMK, the party holding the second-highest number of seats to form the government.
If DMK too is unable to form a government, the state of Tamil Nadu will come under governor's rule for the subsequent six months. Following this period, fresh legislative Assembly elections will be once again held across all 234 constituencies.
Another political analyst Durai Karuna ruled out that TVK will go for a minority government.
"If he (Vijay) gives an appeal, many political parties including Congress, VCK and left parties will join TVK", he claimed. "In addition, the AIADMK, which has decided to organise MLAs meeting on Wednesday, might also announce that it would support TVK unconditionally".
He said a clear picture on Vijay's decision will emerge in a couple of days.
Tharasu Shyam, political critic, claimed that Congress was "holding talks with Vijay."
"From now on, the DMK must change its approach and this applies equally to the AIADMK," he said in an apparent reference to some reported difference of opinion between allies DMK and Congress over seat-sharing and power-sharing ahead of the April 23 polls.
Incidentally, AICC in-charge for Tamil Nadu, Girish Chodankar, on Tuesday admitted that the Congress party leadership's decision to stick with the DMK alliance went against strong grassroots sentiment favouring the TVK.
"The local leaders, the grassroots level leaders, were suggesting if Rahul Gandhi, who has a large acceptance in Tamil Nadu, joins the campaign with Vijay, it will create a big impact and we can sweep the Tamil Nadu polls, and get somewhere around 180-190 seats," Chodankar told PTI Videos.
