As the first Hindu member of the US Congress, she took her oath on the "Bhagavad Gita".
She holds the distinction of being the first American Samoan in Congress.
Her early backing of senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign elevated her national profile amongst progressives.
(Modi met the then Democratic party leader Tulsi Gabbard on Sept. 27, 2019)
Gabbard's mother, born on the US mainland, embraced Hinduism and raised her children in the tradition.
Gabbard, whose first name Tulsi is a sacred plant for Hindus -- something preserved and worshipped in every Hindu household.
US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard as his US Intelligence Chief.
Her selection reflects Trump's preference for appointing foreign policy sceptics who question American military interventions abroad.
Trump's announcement praised Ms Gabbard's "fearless spirit" and her potential contribution to intelligence agencies, emphasising "peace through strength."
The announcement noted her transition from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, saying she switched "because of President Trump's leadership and how he has been able to transform the Republican Party, bringing it back to the party of the people and the party of peace."
Gabbard, 43, was born in American Samoa and raised in Hawaii, with a brief period in the Philippines.
Her political career began at 21 in Hawaii's House of Representatives, interrupted by her National Guard deployment to Iraq.
After withdrawing and supporting Joe Biden's candidacy this year, she later left the Democratic Party, criticising it as controlled by "an elitist cabal of warmongers" and "woke" ideologues. She subsequently aligned with Republicans, joined Fox News, and launched a podcast.
Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve who served in Iraq, has been a longtime critic of the foreign policy establishment. Her nomination is another sign that Trump intends to give top foreign policy jobs to supporters who are deeply skeptical of the effectiveness of U.S. military intervention abroad.
Notably, in 2021 as a Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard moved a resolution in the US Congress for protection of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh after repeated atrocities, and attacked the Pakistani Army for cruelty against the minority group in 1971.
In her resolution, Tulsi Gabbard noted how more than 50 years ago, the Pakistani military killed, tortured and drove thousands of Bengali Hindus from their homes in Bangladesh, saying that at least 2-3 million people were killed during the systematic targeting of the minority group.
Republicans secure majority House of Representatives marking yet another blow to Democrats
Party has won 218 seats in lower chamber after Democrats unsuccessfully campaigned on need to curtail ‘dysfunction’
Republicans had already won the White House and regained a majority in the Senate, so their victory in the House provides them with the last component of their governing trifecta. Although they will have a slim majority, Republicans have indicated they will use their trifecta to maximum effect when the new Congress is seated in January.
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