‘The whole purpose of this meeting…’: When President Biden scoffed at his possible India connection with PM
US President Joe Biden spoke pleasantly about his possible India connection during his first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, recalling a story that a man with the Biden surname wrote to him when He was first elected as a senator in 1972.
Recalling the incident when he was in Mumbai as the US Vice President in 2013, Biden said he was asked if he had any relatives in India.
“I said I’m not sure, but when I was chosen as a 29-year-old kid in 1972 before I was sworn in, I received a letter from a man named Biden from Mumbai. I was never able to . Follow-up,” he said.
He said the next morning the press told him that there were five Bidens living in India. Elaborating on this, Biden jokingly said, “There was a Captain George Biden in the East India Tea Company.
It is hard for an Irish person to accept that. I shouldn’t be so casual. I hope you are able to understand the humour. The end result was that he apparently stayed and married an Indian woman.”
“I’ve never been able to track it down, so the whole purpose of this meeting is to help me figure it out,” Biden said, as people in the meeting room, including Prime Minister Modi, started laughing.
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