CHANDIGARH – U.S.’ South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (Nimrata Randhawa) visited her parents’ native Punjab this week in a surprise trip following her re-election as Governor of South Carolina last week.
Haley in a meeting with Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, promised South Carolina’s support to Punjab in setting up aerospace, pharma, tourism and agro-processing industries.
“I always yearned to see Punjab — my motherland — and now I am so proud to be here after almost 40 years,” said Haley as she got nostalgic upon her arrival at the official residence of Sukhbir Badal Friday evening.
“My parents were also keen on visiting Punjab along with me, but they could not do so because of my busy schedule and their old age,” she told Sukhbir.
Haley was born as Nimrata Nikki Randhawa on January 20, 1972 to an Indian Sikh family. Her parents — Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa — are immigrants hailing from Amritsar district. She has two brothers and a sister. Haley is a graduate in accounting.
The South Carolina Governor told Sukhbir that her state was keen on supporting Punjab in setting up aerospace, pharma, tourism and agro-processing industries.
“South Carolina can help Punjab in getting business and the two states can exchange delegations to take this initiative forward. Education is another area where we can cooperate,” said Haley while extending a formal invitation to Sukhbir to visit her state.
Sukhbir said people of the state were proud of the fact that a person of Punjab origin had gone on to become a Governor in a US state. “We all are proud of you,” he told Haley.
Earlier, Haley said she was proud of having her roots in Punjab and also of her parent’s faith — Sikhism.
She highlighted how South Carolina had been able to create new jobs in the aerospace and hospitality sectors.
This had been done by training personnel to do skilled jobs. “Our success rate in skill training is 93 per cent and we will be glad to assist Punjab in this field as well,” she said.
She is on a 10-day trip to India where she will be visiting New Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Amritsar to seek investment for her state.
“She will be visiting the Golden Temple and Jallianwala Bagh on Nov 15. She will also visit the Guru Nanak Dev University and meet students there. She will be meeting her relatives also,” said an Amritsar district administration official.
Relatives of Haley, who was Nimrata Randhawa before her marriage, had celebrated in Verka when she became South Carolina governor for the first time in November 2010.
She became the first Indo-American woman to become governor of a state in the US.
Another Indo-American, Bobby Jindal, has been governor of Louisiana state in the US. His relatives live in Malerkotla and Ludhiana in Punjab.
