Los Angeles, December 16, 2020 – Prominent Hindu, Sikh and Jain Americans felicitated the win of Congresswoman-elect Young Kim to the United State congress representing California’s 39th district. They celebrated the win of the republican candidate who managed wrest control of a tightly contested Orange County seat.
 |
Republican Congresswoman-elect Young Kim, seen in this screen grab of an online call, had defeated incumbent Democrat Gil Cisneros by a slim margin of about 1.4 percent. She is one of the three Korean American women ever elected to US congress. |
Dr. Amit Desai, Outreach Director of HSS for Pacific South West division kicked off the felicitation. He welcomed the congresswoman-elect to the meeting and introduced her to the audience which was made up of prominent Indian American community leaders across Southern California.
Mr. Vijay Simha, National Vice President of HSS presented a summary of activities that the organization has been working on. He highlighted the immense volunteering work being done by HSS to mitigate food insecurity during COVID crisis such as serving 244,000 meals and donating 294,000 lbs. to food pantries across the United States.
In her acceptance speech, Congresswoman-elect Young Kim thanked HSS and the Indian American community for their support. She recalled the long association and friendship the Indian American community has with her and the former representative Ed Royce.
Congresswoman-elect Young Kim accepted the Indian American community’s request for her to join the Congressional India Caucus. She also expressed her desire to join the Foreign Affairs Committee and work towards building stronger relationship between the United States and India. She spoke on the need for the two countries to stand with each other and with other allies to protect democracies worldwide.
She spoke about how the US and India can together stand up to terrorism and China. She made special mention of the opportunities present for security cooperation and working together for common cause between the “Quad” group of countries, namely USA, India, Japan and Australia.
Congresswoman-elect Young Kim expressed her willingness to work in the Asia sub-committee and improve the interests of the United States and its allies. She thanked HSS and said she was looking forward to continuing the relationship with Indian American community. She fondly recollected her visit to the Jain temple in Buena Park and BAPS temple in Chino Hills.
Dr. Vinod Ambastha, President of HSS thanked the congresswoman-elect for accepting their felicitation, wished her all the very best for her congressional career.
Multiple Indian American elected officials of Southern California attended the event and congratulated Congresswoman-elect Young Kim. Among those presented include Honorable Mayor Harry Siddhu of Anaheim, CA, Honorable Mayor Nitesh Patel of City of La Palma, Honorable Mayor Naresh Solanki of Cerritos, CA, and former Mayor Christina Shea of Irvine, CA.
Indian American leaders representing the Hindu, Sikh and Jain communities came together to celebrate the election win. These include Dr. Jayesh Shah of Buena Park Jain Center, Dr. Jashvant Patel, community leader, Dr. Amrit Nehru of Kashmiri Hindu Foundation, Mr. Divyesh Patel of Chino Hills BAPS temple, Mr. I. R. Patel of Indian Pharmacy Association, Mr. Avadesh Agarwal, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Mr. B U Patel, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Mr. Natoo Patel of Norwalk ISSO temple, Mr. Rajoo Patel of Anaheim Gayatri Temple, Dr. Nathan Punwani, surgeon and writer and Gayatri Joshi of TV Asia.