"The violence against Muslims in India is horrifying and destroys India's role as a beacon for democracy in Asia. The Modi government's actions have created this climate and it must put an end to this. India as we know it is changing for the worse before our eyes.”
These were the words of Neera Tanden.
Neera Tanden is the Indian-American democrat who has now been named the Director of Office of Management and Budget by US President-elect Joe Biden. The OMB oversees the president’s policy, budget, management and regulatory objectives.
As per the Wall Street Journal, Tanden’s nomination is part of the Biden administration’s plan to build a team of liberal and centrist economic advisors.
Neera Tanden is the chief executive of the left-leaning Center for American Progress (CAP) think tank and a long-time aide to former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. She would be the first woman of colour to lead the OMB, which acts as the gatekeeper for the federal budget worth $4 trillion.
BACKGROUND
Tanden was born on 10 September 1970, in Bedford, Massachusetts, to immigrant parents from India. She has an elder brother Raj. Tanden pursued a bachelor of science degree at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a law degree at the Ivy League Yale Law School.
“The position at OMB is a wide-ranging role with broad powers to manage trillions of dollars of the US budget. If anyone had any doubts that our community has arrived politically, this election cycle is proof enough," Indiaspora founder MR Rangaswami, and an eminent philanthropist and venture capitalist told news agency PTI.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)