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nORTH AMERICAn newsline DECEMBER 25, 2020 | The Indian Eye 19

With focus on diversity, Biden packs key positions with Indian americans

Commission for the CARES Kosoglu, Ali Zaidi, Bharat Ra- transition at NASA; Punnet Tal- nia-Riverside. Patel has also
Act by Senate Minority Leader mamurti, Vedant Patel, Vinay war will be on the agency review been the western regional press
Chuck Schumer. Reddy and Gautam Raghavan. team for the US Department of secretary for the Democratic
Previously, Ramamurti was While Murthy will co-chair State; Pav Singh will help transi- National Committee and com-
the top economic adviser to Sen- Biden’s Covid task force, Dr tion the National Security Coun- munication director for Jayapal
ator Elizabeth Warren during Atul Gawande and Dr Celine cil; and Seema Nanda will be with and Mike Honda, the California
her 2020 presidential campaign Gounder, who traces her roots the US Department of Labor. representative who lost to Ro
and senior counsel for banking to a Tamil Nadu village, will also Among these names, Vedant Khanna.
and economic policy in her Sen- be part of the task force. Patel, a former communications Biden seems to be creating
ate office. Among other appointments, aide to House of Representa- an inclusive Cabinet. “Indian
Born in Massachusetts, Ra- Dr Arun Majumdar, former tives member Pramila Jayapal, Americans, like all Americans,
mamurti is a graduate of Harvard Google executive, Obama offi- as his assistant press secretary, are deeply invested in the core
College and Yale Law School. cial, and IIT-Bombay graduate, stands out. Patel has held a string elements of our future — edu-
He lives in Washington, DC with will lead the transition team for of communications positions in cation, access to high-quality, af-
his wife and two daughters. the Energy Department; Dr Ra- the Democratic Party domain, fordable health care, addressing
Joe Biden continues to fill hul Gupta will lead the transition most recently as a regional com- the climate crisis, and reforming
his government structure in a with the Office of National Drug munications director for the and modernizing our immigra-
way that will “look like the coun- Control Policy; Kiran Ahuja has campaign of Biden and Kama- tion system in a way that aligns
try”, at least 25 Indian Ameri- been nominated for Team Lead la Harris, moving up from the with our values,” says Biden’s
cans are set to hold roles in the for Office of Personnel Manage- Biden primary campaign where website. “Our government will
new administration, with at least ment; Vedant Patel will be assis- he headed up communications reflect the diversity of the Unit-
15 in key policy positions. They tant press secretary of the White for Nevada and western states. ed States, and Indian American
have selected several individuals House; Mala Adiga will be pol- Patel was born in India and voices will be included in shap-
for key roles, including Neera icy director to First Lady Dr Jill grew up California, graduating ing the policies that impact their
Tanden, Vivek Murthy, Rohini Biden; Bhavya Lal will lead the from the University of Califor- communities.”

top Pentagon official Kash Patel sues

CNN for $50 million

Kash Patel, the highest-ranking Indian-American in the Pentagon, has filed a

USD 50 million lawsuit against CNN and several of its top reporters for allegedly

defaming him by publishing a series of “false and defamatory statements”.

atel, currently the Chief of Staff “..publication of the defamatory
to Acting US Defense Secretary statements is part of a general pattern
PChristopher Miller, filed the law- of retaliation and discrimination against
suit in a Virginia court against CNN Kash... a larger conspiracy undertaken
and several CNN reporters on Friday, between 2018 and the present to dis-
according to Fox News. credit Kash through the publication
In his lawsuit, Patel, who previous- of false statements and the promotion
ly served in the White House before of unfounded left-wing political narra-
being moved to the Pentagon, alleged tives,” his attorney Steven S Biss said.
that CNN between November 24 and Patel “uncovered many inconvenient
December 4 published a series of arti- facts undermining the fake political nar-
cles that “contain a series of false and rative about collusion between mem-
defamatory statements” about him, ac- bers of the Trump campaign and Rus-
cording to the complaint reported by sians when he was counsel for Nunes,
Fox News. then-chairman of the House Permanent
The CNN articles described Patel, Select Committee on Intelligence,” Biss
who was previously a top aide to Repub- said.
lican Representative from California, CNN did not immediately respond
Devin Nunes, as a pro-Trump conspira- to a request for comment, Fox News
cy theorist, the report said. said.

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