‘P. Sarojini’
Mumbai, India (CWBN)_ The US President-elect, Joe Biden, visited India’s financial capital, Mumbai, in 2013. That was his first Vice Presidential visit to India. During the visit, he had told an audience that his distant relatives are living in Mumbai. He reiterated the same after two years at an event in Washington DC, saying that “There are five Bidens living in Mumbai”.
Biden’s Indian great grandpa
The then Vice President revealed about a letter he received decades back from someone by the last name Biden from Mumbai. He said that soon after becoming the senator, he learnt that his great, great, great, great, great grandfather was a captain in East India Trading Company and after retirement he decided to settle in India and that married an Indian woman.
On July 24, 2013, in his address to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Joe Biden narrated the story about the letter and his relatives living in India. Seven years ago, Joe Biden told the Mumbai audience, “It’s an honor to be back in India and to be here in Mumbai. Off script for a second here, I was reminded I was elected to the United States Senate when I was a 29-year-old kid back in 1972, and one of the first letters I received and I regret I never followed up on it”. He added “Maybe, some genealogist in audience can follow up for me, but I received a letter from a gentleman named Biden – Biden, my name – from Mumbai, asserting that we were related”.
At an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of India-US civil nuclear deal in 2015 in Washington, the then Vice President told a Washington audience that there are five Bidens living in Mumbai.
As the 77-year-old Democrat is all set to take oath as the 46th President of United States, no one from Mumbai has turned up to claim that Joe Biden is his relative.
Mr. Biden had earlier said that someone had also given him a phone number and details of his relatives in Mumbai and that he is planning to contact them. But it is still unclear, if they were contacted, as the five Bidens whom he spoke about never showed up till date.
Edited by Chathushka Perera
