There’ll have to be review of US-India ties: House of Representatives member-elect Amish Shah

Indian American Amish Shah, a physician and former state legislator, was elected to Congress after flipping Arizona’s 1st congressional district in one of the most closely watched races of the midterm elections. In an interview with HT, Shah spoke about his family’s journey to America, the rise in anti-Indian sentiment, and the future of United States (US)-India ties. Edited excerpts:

Could you tell us how your family came to the US?

It was the late 1950s, in Zaveri Bazaar in Bombay (Mumbai). A man named Mark Howard, a retired judge from Michigan, was wandering around. This was before cell phones. It was a hot day. He nearly passed out, and he was clearly in trouble. So my mother’s elder brothers went out, took him in, brought him into the air conditioning, and gave him a can of Coca-Cola. He said, “Wow, I haven’t had Coca-Cola in some time.” And they started talking.

My uncles had expressed some interest in possibly doing business in the US. Their jewellery business was thriving, but they knew they could expand further. Based on that conversation, and by keeping in touch, he eventually sponsored my mother to come to the US to study. She was a student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering starting in 1969. It was an act of generosity that my mom really made sure we knew about, because it is the reason I am standing in front of you today.

You are among six Indian Americans elected to the House of Representatives. There has been a conversation about rising anti-Indian sentiment in the US. What does that mean to you personally, what are you hearing from the community, and what do you intend to do about it?

We have clearly seen that anti-Indian hate has risen, probably more in the last six months to a year than I have ever seen in my lifetime. It is surprising, because for many years we were praised as people contributing to the community, creating jobs as entrepreneurs, serving in the medical field, working in all sectors of the economy. It can be hurtful to hear, despite all of those contributions and wanting to pay back the generosity and goodwill of the American people, that some individuals have made really negative comments. Unfortunately, you can go on Twitter and see some of that, and it is really sad to see.

Sometimes you even saw it from candidates for public office, like a gentleman from Texas running for railroad commissioner. That was particularly hurtful to a lot of people, because those kids were cheering on their football team. That could have been me in the student section at Northwestern in the 1990s. I am still a football fan today, and the Chicago Bears are my team. So seeing that happen is disappointing to the community.

A lot of people feel scared and alone at times like this. What they want is for their elected leaders to see it, condemn it, stand with them, and combat it in the ways they can: first, with the bullhorn we have been given in public office, and also, where there are legislative opportunities, by providing enhanced security. I know other communities have been feeling the same. I hear this a lot from Jewish Americans, who have been combating antisemitism for a long time. A lot of communities are speaking out, and I think our responsibility as elected officials is to set the moral tone.

Is the US-India relationship going to be a priority for you? What is your sense of the state of the relationship and the Trump administration’s handling of it? And will you be joining the India Caucus?

Certainly, we will be joining the India Caucus. But when we are sworn in on January 3, the priority has to be taking care of the needs of my district. My district is concerned, first and foremost, about costs. The war in Iran is causing costs to go up, and tariffs. The Indian American community specifically has been hit by tariffs that have been on and off, on and off. A lot of our entrepreneurs have come to me specifically and complained, and those concerns are top of mind, just as they are for all the people of Arizona. Then there is the One Big Beautiful Bill and its Medicaid cuts, and finally water for Arizona. We are living in a desert, and we are running out. Those are the problems we were sent here to fix, and they will be our top priorities.

Eventually, there will have to be a review of the US-India relationship. I think the tariffs were one of the big reasons we have had some acrimony in the relationship. And not just for India but for the rest of the world, Congress should take that authority away from the President and reclaim it for itself, as is rightfully ours. Once that happens, we believe we can actually improve the US-India relationship.