All about Ro Khanna, the Indian-origin Democrat Elon Musk is showering gratitude on
It’s been a little over a month since Elon Musk called him a ‘d*ck’.
But as they say – tables do turn!
After a little over a month, Elon Musk is thanking Ro Khanna – that too, on a social media platform!
What happened?
Musk, the CEO of Tesla recently took to X (formerly, Twitter) to share a note of his gratitude for the vocal Democrat, saying, “Thank you, @RoKhanna for supporting the people and customers of Tesla!”
What did Ro Khanna do?
Attacks on property carrying the logo of Elon Musk’s electric car company are cropping up across the U.S. and overseas. While no injuries have been reported, Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations and privately owned cars have been targeted. After the recent case of Tesla vandalism, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA) claimed that he was the only Democrat official who had publicly condemned the Tesla vandalism.
As per his own account, “I’m not going to root against Tesla. There are 20,000 people who work in my district who make a living off of this. They’re building electric vehicles that ultimately are good for the climate. Have the protests and the conversation and criticism of Musk just don’t take it out on a company where you have workers, where you have engineers, where you have scientists which are creating wealth for the country, which is helping the climate.”
Who is Ro Khanna?
An Ivy Leaguer, a Silicon Valley progressive, and a Gandhian.
Rohit Khanna, commonly known as Ro Khanna, is an American politician and lawyer who has been serving as the U.S. representative for California’s 17th congressional district since 2017.
A member of the Democratic Party, Khanna achieved victory in the general election on November 8, 2016, defeating the eight-term incumbent Democratic Representative Mike Honda. He had previously run for the same seat in 2014.
From August 8, 2009, to August 2011, Khanna held the position of deputy assistant secretary in the United States Department of Commerce under President Barack Obama.
Khanna endorsed Bernie Sanders for the presidency in 2016 and co-chaired the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign.
Early life and education:
Ro Khanna was born in September 1976 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Indian immigrant parents from a Punjabi Hindu family. He graduated from Council Rock High School, now known as Council Rock High School North, in Newtown, Bucks County, in 1994. Khanna earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with honors from the University of Chicago in 1998, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He then obtained a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 2001.
Beginning of the career:
After graduating, Khanna clerked for federal appeals judge Morris S. Arnold in Little Rock, Arkansas. In private practice, he specialized in intellectual property law.
As a student at the University of Chicago, Khanna worked with William D. Burns, canvassing neighborhoods during Barack Obama’s first campaign for the Illinois Senate in 1996. He also interned for Jack Quinn while Quinn was serving as the chief of staff for Vice President Al Gore. In his sophomore year, Khanna interned at the Carter Center, which was founded by former President Jimmy Carter.
Family and personal life:
Ro Khanna’s parents emigrated to the United States from Punjab, India, in the 1970s. His father is a chemical engineer who graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University of Michigan, while his mother is a former schoolteacher.
Khanna’s maternal grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar, was from Bhera City in the Shahpur District of Punjab Province, British India (now Bhera, Sargodha District, West Punjab, Pakistan). He was involved in the Indian independence movement, working alongside Lala Lajpat Rai, and spent two years in jail advocating for Dominion status for India. In a 2018 op-ed for the Boston Globe, Khanna and Representative John Lewis explored the connections between Gandhi’s movement and the civil rights movement.
Ro Khanna is a practicing Hindu and he described his faith as “Gandhian.”
Marriage and children:
Ro Khanna is married to Ritu Khanna (née Ahuja), who is also an Indian American. Ritu’s father, Monte Ahuja, founded Transtar, an automotive transmission parts supply company, in Solon, Ohio, in 1975. The Monte Ahuja College of Business is named in his honor.
The couple has two children and describes themselves as a family of four. Ro Khanna identifies as a “progressive capitalist” and they reside in Fremont, California.
