Ahmedabad:
Indian-American Kash Patel, confirmed by the US Senate to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), traces his roots to Bhadran village in Gujarat’s Anand district, from where his family migrated to Uganda 70 to 80 years ago, members of the community he belongs to said on Friday.
New York-born Patel (44), who belongs to the Patidar community, has become the first Indian-American to lead the premier law enforcement agency of the United States.
Leaders of the Patidar community said all close family members of Mr Patel are settled in foreign countries. They sold their ancestral houses in Bhadran once they shifted to Africa.
Chh Gam Patidar Mandal, an organisation of the community based in Anand, maintains a `vanshavali’ (family tree) of its members.
“In the ‘vanshavali’ we have names of Kash Patel’s father Pramod Patel and also his brothers and grandfather,” said secretary of the organisation and Anand district BJP present Rajesh Patel.
Rajesh Patel told PTI that though Kash Patel’s name was yet to be added to the family tree, the entry of 18 generations of his family is there in the ‘vanshavali’ and it is stored in their office along with those of all members of their community.
“As per our records, the family used to live in Moti Khadki area of Bhadran village and they migrated to Uganda some 70 to 80 years ago,” he informed.
“The family sold their ancestral house and land and all of his relatives are settled in foreign countries, especially in the USA. Now, when a family member of Kash Patek comes back to India we will seek their permission to record their next generation’s names, including his own name, in the ‘vanshavali’,” Rajesh Patel informed.
“We have not met Kash Patel as the family has not visited Anand in recent years. But many in our community know them as the Patidar community is a close-knit one,” he said.
Rajesh Patel said, as far as he knows, that the family had returned for a brief time to India after their expulsion from the African country in the 1970.
“Those Indians who were expelled from Uganda had come to India for a brief stay as they had applied for asylum in the UK, US or Canada. Kash Patel’s family had also come here for a brief stopover and then moved to Canada once their applications were accepted,” he said.
From Canada, they shifted to the US, where Kash Patel was born in 1980, Rajesh Patel maintained.
Indians who migrated to Uganda were expelled from the African country by dictator Idi Amin who seized power in a military coup in 1971. In 1972, he ordered the Indian community to leave his country in 90 days.
Chh Gam Patidar Mandal is an organization of the Patidar community from six villages/towns of Anand district — Dharmaj, Nadiad, Sojitra, Bhadran, Vaso and Karamsad. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first home minister of the country, hailed from Karamsad.
The new FBI chief served as the former Chief of Staff to Acting Secretary of Defence Christopher Miller. He was responsible for leading the Secretary’s mission at the Department, including his executive staff and providing counsel to him on all matters concerning its operations, the US Department of Defence’s short biography on Kash Patel said.
A native of New York, Kash Patel completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond before returning to New York to earn his law degree, along with a Certificate in International Law from University College London Faculty of Laws in the United Kingdom, it said.
Kash Patel, a trained lawyer, is an ice-hockey fan and has been playing the sport since he was six, it said.
“We are Gujarati,” he had told PTI in an earlier interview in the United States.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)