By IANS,
Chandigarh : Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Thursday felicitated Nikki Haley, whose family hails from Amritsar city in Punjab, on her being elected as the Governor of South Carolina state in the US.
In a congratulatory message, Badal complimented Nikki Haley, the daughter of Sikh immigrant parents from Amritsar, for creating history by becoming the first woman to win the governor’s race in South Carolina state and the first Indian American woman to occupy the office.
Badal said that her feat had brought laurels to the progressive Punjabi community across the globe.
Badal said that the huge margin with which Nikki had won the election clearly showed the acceptability of Punjabis all over the world.
“It is an established fact that Punjabis are progressive and enterprising by nature in every sphere, who always contribute immensely to the development of any country where they settled,” Badal said here.
Haley, born Nimrata (Nikki) Randhawa will be the first woman chief executive of the state and America’s second Indian-American governor after Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, also a Republican, who became the first with his election three years ago.
Even though no known relatives of the Randhawa family live in Amritsar, since the family migrated to the US in early 1970s, people of the Sikh holy city are happy that a woman whose roots are from there has managed to become governor of a state in the US.
“Even though she has no direct connection with Amritsar now, her victory has surely made every Punjabi happy,” Hardev Singh of Amritsar’s Ranjit Avenue said.
Jindal’s family hailed from Malerkotla town in Punjab and he still has several relatives there and in Ludhiana.
The 38-year-old mother of two, who defeated Democrat Vincent Sheheen with a surprisingly close 51 percent-47 percent vote in the most expensive election in state history Tuesday, has already like Jindal been mentioned as a “long shot” presidential candidate for 2012.