Close X
Saturday, September 21, 2024
ADVT 
National

Nikki Haley Says She Sounds Strong Because That's How Her Sikh Parents Raised Her

Darpan News Desk IANS, 04 Apr, 2017 10:04 AM
    A Punjabi may be out of Punjab, but Punjab is never out of her.
     
    Nikki Haley, the outspoken US ambassador to the UN, says if she comes out sounding strong, it's because that's how she was raised by her parents, who are Sikhs from Punjab.
     
    She does her "job to the best of my abilities and if that comes out blunt, comes out strong, I am one of two brothers and a sister and my parents raised us all to be strong," she said at a news conference on Monday.
     
    Her father Ajit Singh Randhwa, is from Amritsar district. He is an agriculture science professor. Her mother is Raj Kaur Randhwa.
     
    One of her brothers, Mitti Randhwa, was an Army officer who saw action in Operation Desert Storm, 1990-91, leading a company tasked with finding chemical weapons.
     
     
    Just over two months into her office as the first Indian American to be appointed to a cabinet-level position, she has made waves by calling a spade a spade, if not a shovel, in an arena where a diplomat may delicately call it a spoon.
     
    She has called the UN Human Rights Council "corrupt", the UN of being a partner of a "corrupt" government, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a "war criminal", and declared she was free to "beat up on Russia".
     
    And she perceives her job as shaking up the UN and pulling it by its purse strings, kicking and screaming, to carry out reforms.
     
    A TV reporter addressed her as "Madam President" because she presides over the Security Council this month, and quipped that's what she may be called in eight years -- a hint that she may become the nation's President.
     
     
    Haley said that in every job she has held "people assumed I was looking for something bigger".
     
    But, she said, "In reality I am the daughter of Indian parents who said to me whatever you do be great at it and make sure people remember you for it. That's all I have ever shown, try to be."
     
    Haley has emerged as the face of American diplomacy with her outspokenness and availability to the public and the media - she was on three Sunday morning TV talk shows speaking out on US foreign policy, in addition to a speech at the Council on Foreign relations.
     
    Unlike most of President Donald Trump's cabinet and top officials she has a warm relationship with the otherwise belligerent media.
     
     
    In contrast, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has kept away from the media and minimised public appearances. Even his spokesperson, Mark Toner, is a holdover from President Barack Obama's administration.
     
    This makes Haley the only accessible authentic voice of Trump foreign policy, raising her public profile.
     
    That in turn has led to media speculation in recent days that she is likely to succeed Tillerson.
     
    Answering a question if she was offered the job of Secretary of State, Haley said that Trump did not make the offer when she met him at the Trump Tower barely two weeks after the election in November.
     
    But she said, "The original call that I got to go to Trump Tower was to discuss Secretary of State."
     
     
    She added, "When we went in that was the position we were discussing."

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Lone Snowmobiler Saved By Other Sledders After Avalanche Near Terrace, B.C.

    Lone Snowmobiler Saved By Other Sledders After Avalanche Near Terrace, B.C.
    TERRACE, B.C. — A snowmobiler from northwestern British Columbia owes his life to the quick action of five rescuers after he was caught in an avalanche north of Terrace

    Lone Snowmobiler Saved By Other Sledders After Avalanche Near Terrace, B.C.

    1 Child Or Youth Suffers Gunshot Injury Each Day In Ontario, Study Finds

    1 Child Or Youth Suffers Gunshot Injury Each Day In Ontario, Study Finds
    TORONTO — Firearms injure a child or youth almost every day in Ontario, say researchers, who analyzed hospital records to determine which groups of young people are most at risk for gun-related accidents or violent assault.

    1 Child Or Youth Suffers Gunshot Injury Each Day In Ontario, Study Finds

    You Bloody Black Indians: Kerala Man Abused, Assaulted At An Australian Restaurant

    You Bloody Black Indians: Kerala Man Abused, Assaulted At An Australian Restaurant
    Li Max Joy, who is pursuing a nursing course and working as a part time taxi driver in Australia, alleged that five people including a girl hurled racial abuses like "you bloody black Indians" at him and assaulted him up at the McDonald's restaurant at North Hobart.

    You Bloody Black Indians: Kerala Man Abused, Assaulted At An Australian Restaurant

    Indian Americans Honor Kansas Hero Ian Grillot With $100,000 To Buy A House

    Indian Americans Honor Kansas Hero Ian Grillot With $100,000 To Buy A House
    The Indian American community in Houston has presented $100,000 to Ian Grillot, a 24-year-old American who was shot while trying to save Indian techies Srinivas Kuchibotla and Alok Madasani during a shooting in Kansas.

    Indian Americans Honor Kansas Hero Ian Grillot With $100,000 To Buy A House

    Indian-Americans Protest 'Hinduphobic' CNN Documentary Over 'Aghoris'

    Indian-Americans Protest 'Hinduphobic' CNN Documentary Over 'Aghoris'
    A large contingent of Indian-Americans gathered outside the CNN office in Chicago after the channel aired a documentary that "tarnished" Hinduism, the media reported.

    Indian-Americans Protest 'Hinduphobic' CNN Documentary Over 'Aghoris'

    Man Convicted In So-called Honour Killings Ordered To Pay Wife's Legal Fees

    Man Convicted In So-called Honour Killings Ordered To Pay Wife's Legal Fees
    A judge in Kingston, Ont., has ordered that Mohammad Shafia pay more than $138,000 in legal fees to a lawyer who represented his wife, Tooba Yahya.

    Man Convicted In So-called Honour Killings Ordered To Pay Wife's Legal Fees