Indian-American Kash Patel, who was officially sworn in as the ninth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Friday, traces his roots to Bhadran village in Gujarat’s Anand district, from where his family migrated to Uganda 70 to 80 years ago, his community members said on Friday.
Patel took the oath by placing a hand on the Bhagavad Gita. His girlfriend and family stood beside him as he recited the oath, and other family members were seated in the front row. Born in New York, Patel (44) belongs to the Patidar community. He has become the first Indian-American to lead the premier law enforcement agency in the United States.
Leaders of the Patidar community said all close family members of Patel are settled in foreign countries. Once they shifted to Africa, they sold their ancestral houses in Bhadran. Chh Gam Patidar Mandal, an organisation of the community based in Anand, maintains `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 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 comes back to India we will seek their permission to record their next generation’s names, including his name, in 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 Patidar is a close-knit community,” he said.
Rajesh Patel said as far as he knows, the family had returned for a brief time to India after their expulsion from the African country in 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 organisation 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.
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