Republican with roots in Palakkad makes bid for US President with ultra-conservative agenda

Among the contenders for the job of the world’s most powerful person – the President of the United States – is a man having roots in a village in Palakkad district of Kerala. How did this happen?

Flashback to the 1970s, V G Ramaswamy, hailing from a settlement of Tamil Brahmins at Wadakkanchery in Palakkad went to study Engineering at the erstwhile Regional Engineering College — the present-day National Institutes of Technology  — in Kozhikode and on completing the course flew to the United States.

There, he pursued higher studies, secured employment and settled down with his wife Geetha, a graduate from the Mysore Medical College. In 1985, the couple was blessed with a baby boy at Cincinnati in Ohio State. He was named Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy.

The story till then was similar to that of thousands of immigrants from India who sought to realise their dreams in the US. However, what followed was something extraordinary. Vivek, son of Ramaswamy and Geetha, studied at Harvard and Yale and later set up his own company. The business flourished, making Vivek a millionaire. He soon developed political ambitions and is currently in the race for earning the Republican Party’s nomination to run for the President of the United States. 

In the Republican race too, Vivek is ahead of many leading political figures such as Nikki Haley, who was the Governor of South Carolina and US ambassador to the United Nations. In fact, Vivek is now placed in the third position, behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Many people see Vivek’s bid for the Presidency as a joke. However, no one can be written off in the reality of politics. In 2015, when Trump contested the primaries for the top post in the US, several people had mocked him. Similarly, nobody could have imagined that the son-in-law of Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy would become the Prime Minister of Britain one day.

Vivek Ramaswamy, aged 37, is currently the executive chairman of Strive Asset Management Company. He made money by running a biotech firm named Roivant Sciences and his total wealth is valued at US Dollars 630 million (around Rs 5,000 crore). Vivek is married to Apoorva Tewari and the couple has two sons.

The unique aspect of Vivek’s story doesn’t end there. As per indications, the global business scenario would witness an upheaval if Vivek becomes the US President. In fact, Vivek’s ideas are more conservative than even Trump’s. For example, Vivek argues that climate change is a myth. According to him, spending money for green technologies is a waste. He also says that let carbon emissions continue without controls. There is no need for investments in ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues too, he says. 

Vivek’s stand on LGBTQ individuals is also controversial. They need no special consideration, he says. All they require is guidance to change attitudes, Vivek claims.

He also feels that gender issues are a waste of time.

In other words, Vivek opposes every change that the world has witnessed in recent decades. But, curiously, Vivek has many supporters in the US.

Vivek’s position on China too is interesting. If he takes over the top job in the US, Vivek would be telling the Chinese President, “Brother, we are done.”

Observers anticipate a massive quake in the global business scene in the event of Vivek becoming US President.

Tailpiece: On China’s threat to attack Taiwan, Vivek says, “Go ahead if you like; but only after the US ends its dependency on the semiconductors made there.”