Kamala Harris accepts Democratic Party's nomination for US vice-president, scripts history

Washington, Aug 20: Senator Kamala Harris has accepted the Democratic Party's nomination to be the vice president of the United States, scripting history by becoming the first Indian-American and also the first Black woman to be on a major political party's national ticket.

She was nominated as the vice-presidential candidate on Wednesday at the virtual Democratic National Convention.

"I accept your nomination for vice president of the United States of America," she said. In her acceptance speech, Harris paid tribute to the Black women that came before her and she vowed to fight for the nation.

"Let's fight with conviction. Let's fight with hope. Let's fight with confidence in ourselves, and a commitment to each other," she said.

She profoundly remembered her mother from Tamil Nadu. Harris said she was there standing on her mother's shoulders, a woman who "came here from India at age 19 to pursue her dream of curing cancer. At the University of California, Berkeley, she met my father, Donald Harris - who had come from Jamaica to study economics."

She assailed US President Donald Trump's "failure of leadership". She said the Republican leader "turns our tragedies into political weapons". "Donald Trump's failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods," Harris said.

"We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work. A president who will bring all of us together-Black, White, Latino, Asian, Indigenous-to achieve the future we collectively want," Harris said, making a passionate plea before Americans to vote them to power.

"We must elect Joe Biden. I knew Joe as Vice President. I knew Joe on the campaign trail. But I first got to know Joe as the father of my friend," she said.

Biden and Harris will challenge Trump and his Vice-President Mike Pence in the November 3 election. Harris is the first Indian-American to be selected for the second-highest elected office of the United States after that of the president.

She is also the first-ever Black and first-ever African American to be nominated as a vice-presidential candidate by a major political party. If elected in the November 3 presidential elections, Harris, whose mother is from India and father from Jamaica, would be the first-ever women vice president of the United States.