On November 22, 2016, Governor Nikki R Haley of South Carolina was chosen by US President-elect Donald Trump to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations, becoming first Indian-American to be appointed to a Cabinet-level post in the US administration.
Accepting Trump’s offer, Haley said: “When the President believes you have a major contribution to make to the welfare of our nation, and to our nation’s standing in the world, that is a calling that is important to heed.”
Daughter of Indian immigrants, 44-year-old Haley is the first woman tapped by Trump for a top-level administration post during his transition to the White House.
Haley was highly critical of Trump during the US election campaign and had backed Senator Marco Rubio in the Republican primary. However, before the general elections, she switched her position, saying she would vote for Trump.
Born Nimrata “Nikki” Randhawa on January 20, 1972, in Bamberg, South Carolina, to Sikh immigrants from Punjab State in India, Haley is the first minority and female governor of South Carolina.
The Republican entered politics at a young age, and served in the South Carolina House of Representatives for several years before becoming governor of the state. Currently, she is serving her second term. In addition to being the first female governor in South Carolina, she is the first Indian-American, and the second Indian-American governor in the country after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.
Haley converted to Christianity and sits on the board of the Mt Horeb United Methodist Church. Out of respect for her parents’ culture, she still attends Sikh services in Gurudwara.
She favours free markets and global trade, and earned global attention for speaking out against the Confederate battle flag in the aftermath of the 2015 massacre at a black church in Charleston.
Haley’s highest-profile trip, perhaps, was a 2014 visit to India, the birthplace of her parents. Her husband, Michael, has served in Afghanistan as an officer in the South Carolina National Guard. The couple have two children, Rena and Nalin.
She has said the locals in South Carolina were often unsure of her place in what is often a Southern binary of black versus white. When Haley was about 5, she and her sister (Simran) entered a Little Miss Bamberg pageant where, traditionally, a black queen and a white queen were crowned. The judges decided the sisters fit neither category, so they were disqualified. From a young age, Haley worked for her family’s clothing business, and she eventually received an accounting degree from Clemson University. She was elected to the State House in 2004. In 2009, she declared she was running for governor and prevailed despite lingering biases. A nimble campaigner who is equally at home among CEOs and denim-clad bikers, Haley easily won re-election in 2014.
Just like Trump, Haley has overcome accusations of sexual impropriety without suffering at the hustings. In her first run for governor, two Republican operatives made separate and unproven accusations that they had sexual encounters with her. She strongly denied the assertions, saying that she had been faithful to her husband, Michael Haley. A few years later, Haley was among those rumoured as a potential running mate for Mitt Romney, then a Republican presidential candidate. She said she could not do it because there was too much to be done at home in South Carolina.
Nikki Haley is the daughter of Dr Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa.
Coming from an honourable family in Punjab, India, Dr Ajit Singh Randhawa set sail for America in 1963 with his wife, Raj Kaur. The two landed in Canada where Dr Randhawa earned his education in the field of Biology. The couple moved to South Carolina in 1969 in order for him to take a job as professor in the Biology department of Voorhees College.
In the late 1950s, Ajit Randhawa was an assistant professor at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, India. He was offered a scholarship to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, to do his Ph.D, which he completed in 1969.
After 29 years of teaching at Voorhees College, Ajit Randhawa retired as Chairman of Division of Natural Sciences, Math and Computer Science.
Nikki Haley's mother began a business selling Indian fashions (Exotica International) from their home. Beginning as a gift shop, Exotica International grew into a multimillion-dollar company, selling gowns, suits and jewellery. Nikki Haley learned about her passion for handling business finances as a teenager working for her mother.
Raj Kaur Randhawa studied Law from University of Delhi. In the US, Raj Randhawa continued her studies and earned a Masters in Education (M.Ed) degree. She taught social studies in public schools for 7 years.
Haley's parents are Sikh. Her father, Ajit, wears a turban, and although male Sikhs are not supposed to cut their hair, her brothers did after kids at school continuously teased them, according to The New York Times.
Nikki Haley has an elder brother, Harmeet (“Mitti”) Randhawa Singh, an elder sister, Simran Singh and a younger brother, Charan (“Gogi”) Randhawa. Except for Mitti, the eldest sibling, the other three Randhawa siblings were born in Bamberg, South Carolina.
The Randhawas are from Pandori Ransingh village in Punjab, India.
Haley will continue to serve as the governor of South Carolina until the Senate confirms her nomination.
