Chavda Law Group is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's India Channel. Subscribe here for monthly India newsletters.
When Swati Kulkarni arrived in 2018 as the third consul general of India in Atlanta, she asked various factions in the sometimes-fragmented Indian community to come together for a single welcome party.
That same spirit of collaboration was on display Monday as a group of organizations feted the outgoing diplomat, offering tributes to her ingenuity, seeming ubiquity and knack for winsomely presenting India’s view of the world.
The Atlanta Council on International Relations partnered on the event with the local chapter of the Indian-American International Chamber of Commerce, a collaboration emblematic of the consul general’s ability to work across cultural lines in a large territory.
Dr. Kulkarni had served in places like Oman, South Africa and the United Kingdom after leaving behind medical aspirations for a career in the foreign service. She knew that to truly represent the interests of a country with a rising economic profile and one-fifth of the world’s population, she had look beyond her own community.
She held more than 150 meetings with elected officials across the South — including seven governors, more than 20 mayors and more than 20 congressional leaders.
She valued “each visit, each statement in the Congressional Record, each favorable tweet in favor of India its abiding commitment to this beautiful partnership,” building alliances with those who expressed a reciprocal openness, she told attendees just before being honored with flowers and a plaque commemorating the occasion.
Two U.S. legislators from beyond Georgia offered remarks at the event, showing how intent she was in going outside the state to the five others she covers for India.
Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina’s 2nd congressional district, traced his affinity with India back to his father, who stopped over there en route to serving in the Flying Tigers air unit in China during World War II.
Mr. Wilson noted that he had worked closely with Indian-American hoteliers and convenience store owners during his time as a real estate attorney and later campaigned for Nikki Haley, the second Indian-American to serve as a state governor.
Upon taking office in 2001, he immediately joined the chamber’s India Caucus.
“Before I joined the Republican caucus, I joined the India caucus,” said Mr. Wilson, who keeps a gold-fringed India flag in his Washington office.
He added that the warming of relations between India and the U.S. — the world’s two largest democracies — was welcome at a time of Russian aggression and global uncertainty.
“We all painfully remember the Cold War. That was not a warm relationship. It was really an unnatural division,” he said, referring to India’s close ties with the Soviet Union in the decades following its independence.
Umesh Sanjanwala, state director for U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., made note of Dr. Kulkarni’s frequent visits and persistent support of his state in his remarks. He quoted a congratulatory message from the senator:
“I firmly believe that relations between India and Mississippi are very much benefited from your efforts and experience. I’m convinced that our bilateral ties will advance further in the years to come.”
Mr. Sanjanwala added that Dr. Kulkarni won the senator’s affections when the consul general reached out to invite her to the “Howdy Modi” event that brought 50,000 Indian-Americans to see the prime minister in Houston in September 2019. The consulate in Atlanta was responsible for outreach to elected officials and coordination among the dignitaries at the landmark event. (Subhash Razdan, chair of the Gandhi Foundation in Atlanta, said he was impressed when he saw that Narendra Modi, the country’s outspoken prime minister, waited for the consul general’s nod before going ahead with his remarks.)
Mr. Sanjanwala presented Dr. Kulkarni with made-in-Mississippi cookies and thanked the consul general for helping Mississippians stuck in India get back home during the pandemic.
Emory University marketing expert Jagdish Sheth, a renowned scholar that has served on Indian company boards and recently received the government’s prestigious Padma Bhushan award, said these anecdotes showed Dr. Kulkarni is a “doer.”
“Whether it’s a passport crisis, somebody stranded at the airport, doesn’t matter. She gets things done,” Dr. Sheth said.
He added that she was very effective in “non-Indian forums.”
“It’s very important for us to get into the mainstream American population,” he said, noting her competence in articulating India’s positions and promoting its business links with the U.S. “As you know, ambassadors are not just brand ambassadors, but also trade ambassadors.”
In her concluding remarks as chief guest in the Indian tradition, Dr. Kulkarni pointed to Atlanta as one of the highlights of her 27-year diplomatic career.
“I came here in September 2018, and since then, my journey has been action-packed adventure, as we say in Bollywood,” she said. “We put in best efforts. There were many ups and downs but the journey was eventful, insightful, interesting, fulfilling and enriching.”
Achievements cited include helping thousands of Indians return home during the COVID-19 pandemic, introducing a chatbot on the consulate’s website, commissioning a study tracking $11 billion in Indian investments across the region and encouraging states to invest their pension funds into India.
The consulate also participated in more than 150 business events, both in person and virtually, during Dr. Kulkarni’s tenure, which straddled the most intense periods of the pandemic. She lobbied hard for high-level visits to Atlanta, resulting in ACIR luncheons with two successive ambassadors to the United States — Harsh Vardhan Shringla and, more recently, Taranjit Sandhu.
ACIR Program Director Tony Cuzzucoli acknowledged as much in his congratulatory remarks.
“The Indian government has always sent its best in its brightest to America, and Dr. Kulkarni, you are no exception to that rule,” he said.
Also present at the event were Dr. Kulkarni’s husband, Vijay Kulkarni, board leadership from the Georgia Indo-American Chamber, prominent Indian-American physicians and other diplomats included Javier Diaz de Leon, Mexico’s consul general and the dean of the Atlanta Consular Corps.
India’s consulate general in Atlanta launched in 2011, with the official announcement coming in early 2012, placing it among the newest in the city. Aside from Georgia, five states – Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee – and two territories, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, are under the consulate’s jurisdiction. Dr. Kulkarni was the third consul general overall and first woman to occupy the post, succeeding Nagesh Singh.
Dr. Kulkarni has yet to receive clarity on her next assignment in the Indian foreign service, though many at the event were persuaded that she would find herself carrying the ambassador title before too long.
The Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Diplomacy Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Diplomacy newsletters.
