US Vice President Kamala Harris visits home of Indian grandfather PV Gopalan in Zambia

Washington, April 1: During his visit to Zambia, US Vice President Kamala Harris paid tribute to Gopalan, the grandfather of an Indian diplomat, and visited the former residence of Gopalan in Lusaka.

“The trip to Zambia is of special significance to me, as many of you know, and also for my family. As you know, Mr. President, I was a little girl when my grandfather worked here,” Harris said at a joint news conference with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema in Lusaka told reporters.

Harris said her grandfather was a civil servant in India. “In 1966, shortly after Zambia’s independence, he came to Lusaka as Director of Relief Measures and Refugee Affairs. That was his title. He was an advisor to the first president of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda. specialists.”

“I fondly remember my time here. I was a kid, so it’s a kid’s memory. But I remember what it was like to be here, and the warmth and excitement of being here. In fact, I was talking to my aunt recently , she reminded me of the relationships she developed while working – when it was called Lusaka Central Hospital – when she was working there with the doctors there,” Harris said.

“So from my family and from all of us, our thoughts and greetings to everyone in this room,” she added. PV Gopalan was appointed by the Government of India to the Government of Zambia in January 1966 as Director of Relief Measures and Refugees.

In fulfillment of these responsibilities, he resigned as Director of the Office of the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rehabilitation, Government of India. In July 1969, following his dismissal from the Government of Zambia, he assumed responsibility for the Office of the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rehabilitation, Government of India.

After much effort, the U.S. embassy in Lusaka worked with the vice president’s office to locate where they believed Gopalan lived. That was the land on which his house stood, not a building that no longer exists. US earthquake: 4.5-magnitude quake hits Southern California.

While in Lusaka in the 1960s, her family lived at 16 Independence Avenue, according to a White House official, although the address number has since changed and the location was eventually identified using a lot number from public records and land surveys .

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. embassy in Lusaka conducted research to locate the house, including searching public records, engaging with Zambian and Indian authorities and speaking with people who were working for the Zambian government at the time .

“Additionally, the Vice President’s family provided recollections of the house, which aided the search. After extensive work at the embassy and a dead-end search, the embassy had identified the location only a few days earlier, when the Vice President was Accra, Ghana,” the official said.

Ultimately, the Zambia Ministry of Lands, with the assistance of others, identified 16 Independence Ave as the Gopalan family home as recorded in the Public Lands File dated March 9, 1967. The property now belongs to the Madison Group, a Zambian group of companies that includes Madison General Insurance and Madison Financial.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)