Ritu Jha-
Sushil Tyagi calls himself a reserved academic who is not much into politics unlike his mother-in-law, candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The news came into the limelight recently the US senator for Massachusetts Warren has a connection to India and that she has been to Uttar Pradesh, India, on several occasions.
Tyagi lives in California and is married to Warren’s daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi – a businesswoman and author. Tyagi, who specializes in marine robotics, told indica that Warren likes Indian food.
“Senator Warren loves Indian home foods so much that I learned to cook them for her myself,” Tyagi sad. “Simple vegetarian dishes are her favorites, such as urad daal (Lentil) and boondi raita (fried droplets of batter made from besan (chickpea flour, mixed in yogurt).”
According to Politico, Warren can win debates but not states. If elected she would be the first woman US president. Her campaign manager Roger Lau announced in February she raised more than $29 million and is not giving up.
When asked about the late disclosure of his connection with Warren, Tyagi said they have been mostly an academic family for a long time.
“My work has been in engineering and analytics ever since IIT, Berkeley and Wharton – and currently in marine robotics,” Tyagi said. “My family has, therefore, naturally stayed private for a very long time, since all this politics is very new to us. Now mostly, I wanted to just let the South Asian community know about their personal familial connection to Senator Warren – since all her three grandchildren are of this heritage.”
Tyagi talked about meeting Warren for the first time. “ I met my future wife, Amelia, while we were both MBA students at Wharton school at UPenn. Both her parents were law professors then. I had an immediate connection with Prof. Warren and Prof. Bruce Mann. As they learned about my growing up in a village in UP and then making it to IIT, they could see some parallel in this path – as they also grew up without much and made their way only through higher education.”
He said he believes in Warren and her campaign.
Warren is from a small Oklahoma town, and all of her three brothers served in the military. She has lived the experience of so many people as a young mother who started to work as a public-school teacher.
Later, she went on to become a leading expert in corporate finance and banking regulations as a research law professor. As an assistant to President Obama, who also appointed her Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury, she helped shepherd the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an idea she first proposed during her time teaching at Harvard Law School.
She understands the business world so well that she recognizes exactly how the policies could be manipulated by the big banks and giant corporations, according to Tyagi.
She has also seen firsthand the impact of these policies on her parents’ middle-class family growing up, he said. “This gives her a comprehensive perspective and personal commitment to help all Americans – of any state or party – and thereby she is the best presidential choice for everyone,” said Tyagi.
Tyagi said the Indian American community is only slowly becoming more involved in mainstream politics and informed about public policies – and the younger generation is getting actively involved. It is important to get the voice of the community heard and be included in the political discourse by organizing and volunteering for the campaign, to get everyone engaged, and turn out to vote when it matters, he said. Warren’s campaign has a large number of staff and volunteers from South Asia and the Indian-American community.
Navneet Chugh, founder and managing partner of law and CPA firm Chugh, LLP and a Warren supporter, told indica he supported Sen.Kamala Harris, but since she dropped from the race, he is supporting Warren.
“I have been enamored by Senator Warren when I first heard on television many years ago,” Chugh said, adding that she is bright, articulate and truly cares for the country and human beings.
“America has three shortcomings: we have not had a woman president, we don’t have universal healthcare, and our current president does not believe in law and order. Senator Warren remedies all three,” Chugh said adding he believes in her India connection.
