US Vice President Kamala Harris visited her grandfather PV Gopalan’s home in Zambia (FILE)
Washington:
US Vice President Kamala Harris, during her trip to Zambia, remembered her maternal grandfather, PV Gopalan, an Indian Foreign Service official, and paid a visit to the Gopalan family home in Lusaka.
“My visit to Zambia has special meaning for me, as many of you know, and for my family. As you know, I visited Zambia as a young girl, Mr President, when my grandfather was working here,” Vice President Harris told reporters in Lusaka at a joint press conference with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema.
Vice President Harris said her grandfather was a civil servant in India. “And in 1966, shortly after Zambia’s independence, he came to Lusaka to serve as Director of Relief Operations and Refugees. That was his title. He served as an advisor to Zambia’s first President Kenneth Kaunda. And he was an expert on refugee resettlement.”
“I have fond memories of my time here. I was a kid, so it’s the memory of a kid. But I remember being here and how it felt and the warmth and excitement that was there. And indeed, I was speaking to my aunt recently, and she reminded me of the relationships she made working at Lusaka Central Hospital, working there with the doctors there,” said Vice President Harris.
“So, from my family and from all of us, salute to everyone here,” she added.
PV Gopalan was delegated by the Government of India to the Government of Zambia in January 1966 as Director of Relief Operations and Refugees.
In order to carry out these duties, he resigned his position as Head of the Office of the Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Rehabilitation in the Government of India. In July 1969, after resigning from the Government of Zambia, he resumed as Head of the Office of the Joint Secretary of the Government of India at the Ministry of Rehabilitation.
After much effort, the US Embassy in Lusaka, in cooperation with the Vice President’s Office, has located where they believe Gopalan lived. It was the land his house stood on, not the building that is no longer there.
According to a White House official, her family lived in Lusaka at 16 Independence Avenue in the 1960s, although address numbering has since changed and the location was ultimately identified by lot numbers in public records and land surveys.
The US Embassy in Lusaka was conducting investigations to identify the location of this house, including reviewing public records, cooperating with Zambian and Indian authorities and interviewing those working in the Zambian government at the time, the official said the condition of anonymity.
“In addition, members of the Vice President’s family provided memories of the home, which assisted in the search. After much work by the embassy and dead ends in searching, the embassy identified this location only a few days ago when the vice president was there in Accra, Ghana,” the official said.
Ultimately, the Zambian Ministry of Land, with the support of others, identified 16 Independence Ave as the home of the Gopalan family, as recorded in a March 9, 1967 public land document. The property is now owned by the Madison Group, a Zambian group of companies that owns Madison General Insurance and Madison Financial.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated feed.)