Their way or the highway: Girl power behind Hillary

What is it like for an Indian to campaign for Hillary Clinton who is running for the US president? “Extremely incredible,” says Vijayawada’s Swetha Chowdary Kesineni, a student campaigning in United States, for Hillary Clinton.

20-year-old Swetha, daughter of Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas, better known as Nani, campaigned for her father during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Her interest in exploring politics made her part of Students for Hillary, a unit of Hillary’s campaigning team.

Being an international student pursuing Psychology and Economics at the Emory University in Georgia, Swetha is unique to bag the chance in the political field. She is currently busy propagating Hillary’s ideology and policies among the people, particularly the student community.

Campaigning for the Presidential hopeful since June last year, she says, “After campaigning for my father, I also worked for local senator in the US in 2014. In June 2015, I became a volunteer in the team for Hillary in its grass root level.

Essentially I am a student leader supposed to mobilise students on college campuses and let people know about Hillary’s policies. It’s been extremely incredible, because I have been a fan of Hillary from 2008 when I first heard her speech.”

“She is an inspiring crusader for women’s rights. As part of working for Hillary, we meet people from various communities who will support us for the rest of their lives. Their ideology is similar to us. When I call up people saying I volunteer for Hillary, the response is great. I just met her once but follow her daily. I am going to meet her in a couple of months,” she adds.

Speaking about the ideology of Donald Trump, Swetha says, “I think Trump would be extremely bad — not just for America but the world. We can’t have somebody propagating ideas of ingroup and outgroup as president of one of most powerful nations in world.”

Swetha did her schooling in Ooty and later in Bengaluru before moving to the US. Back home, what will be her plans? “I see my career prospective back in India and I would be helping people here in future, but not through politics. I want to explore other options initially.”

How come she balances her education and campaigning? “When we have the passion, it works any ways.”