Author Salman Rushdie.
Credit: Reuters Photo
New York: Mumbai-born author Salman Rushdie has endorsed Kamala Harris’s candidacy for the US presidency and said he believes she is the person who can prevent former president Donald Trump from dragging the country towards authoritarianism.
Rushdie on Sunday extended his support and endorsement of US Vice President Harris during a virtual ‘South Asian Men for Harris’ event attended by scores of leading names from the Indian-American community, including prominent lawmakers, authors, policy experts, entrepreneurs and diaspora organisations.
“It's a critical moment. I'm a boy from Bombay and it's great to see an Indian woman running for the White House. And my wife is African-American, so we like the fact that a Black and Indian woman is running for the White House,” Rushdie said.
Harris, 59, is the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. She officially declared her candidacy after incumbent President Joe Biden withdrew from the race for a second term on July 20. She is expected to be officially declared as the presidential candidate by the Democrats next month.
The 77-year-old British-American novelist also noted that ethnicity itself is not enough. “We would not be gathering in this way let's say for Usha Vance or Nikki Haley,” he said, referring to the Indian-American wife of Republican Vice Presidential nominee J D Vance and the Indian-American former South Carolina governor.
Rushdie emphasised that the momentum is because something “very extraordinary, transformative has happened in American politics” in just under one week.
“The conversation has entirely changed with the arrival of Kamala Harris's candidacy and it's changed most joyfully, a way of optimism and positive, forward-thinking,” he said.
Rushdie underscored that the community has to make that work because “we can't allow the alternative to happen".
"This hollow man without a single noble quality, trying to drag this country towards authoritarianism. That cannot happen," he said, referring to 78-year-old Trump, a Republican.
Rushdie voiced his confidence that Harris “is the person who can prevent it. And so I'm right in 1,000 per cent in for her.” He added that star power matters in America and one could argue that Trump’s celebrity status from being on TV for many years helped him get elected to the White House in 2016.
“Well, right now, he doesn't look like the star. He looks like the old, fat guy. Kamala looks like the superstar. And I think the charisma she brings to the campaign could be critical in the weeks ahead,” he said.
In response to a question that there are sceptics in the country who believe that America would not elect a woman with Black and Indian heritage as President, Rushdie said this may well have been an argument even as recently as maybe a decade but the times have changed.
“I think the way in which women's leadership is viewed now is different. The way in which the race issue can be made a positive is a new thing. And so I think there's absolutely no reason why Kamala Harris should not win and actually win it quite handily,” Rushdie said.
Underlining that the tide is turning, Rushdie cited recent media polls that put Harris neck and neck with Trump, “which is a pretty big bounce from the last Biden poll".
"And it's not even a week. We can do this. We just have to believe it.” Rushdie called on people across the country, including the writer community, to "use every power we have, whether it's speaking out, writing, arguing, we've got to win this argument. And writers are pretty good at arguing. So I think we're going to do our best." Noting that the November 5 presidential election is just 100 days away, Rushdie said: “There's not a minute to lose,” as he urged “aunties” and extended families to mobilise and come out and vote in large numbers for Harris.
With communities ranging from South Asian to Indo-Carribean coming together and galvanising for Harris, Rushdie described their support as very moving.
“It's moving in the way that in recent days these great assemblies of people have been moving. The gathering of Black women, the gathering of White women, the gathering of Asian women, and now this event. It just shows that there is enormous power in our coming together,” he said.
Rushdie underscored that “we cannot be complacent. We have to fight this down to the wire because it's probably going to go down to the wire, but that doesn't mean we can't be the first pass the post. I believe we can”.
The event called on all South Asian men and women to rally, fundraise and get out to vote for “our first female president, Kamala Harris!” The event, co-hosted by CEO and Co-founder of full-service digital agency Digimentors Sree Sreenivasan, featured prominent names including Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois, co-founder of South Asians for Harris Harini Krishnan and Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija.