thethinker
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US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as foreigners
Washington: In an extremely awkward incident, a newly elected member of the US House of Representatives mistook two senior Indian American officials of the Barack Obama administration to be from India and asked them questions about "your country" and "your government".
"I'm familiar with your country; I love your country," freshman Republican Curt Clawson told Nisha Biswal and Arun Kumar at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Thursday, Foreign Policy online reported.
"Anything I can do to make the relationship with India better, I'm willing and enthusiastic about doing so," he continued amid looks of confusion among State Department and Congressional staff attending the hearing.
Clawson, apparently confused by their Indian surnames and skin tone also asked Biswal and Arun Kumar if the Indian government could loosen restrictions on US capital investments in the country.
"Just as your capital is welcome here to produce good-paying jobs in the US, I'd like our capital to be welcome there," he said. "I ask cooperation and commitment and priority from your government in so doing. Can I have that?"