Jayapal, 51, was elected to the US House of Representatives from the Seventh Congressional District of Washington State. She is the first Indian-American woman to be ever elected to the House.
"I think India is not only incredibly important to me not only because I was actually born in India. Iam very deeply tied with India. My parents still live in India. They live in Bangalore. My son was born in India. For me the relationship between the US and India is not only a political relationship, but also a personal relationship. It is actually what I live every day," Jayapal told PTI.
Currently in Washington DC to attend reorientation for the new elected members of the Congress, Jayapal said she believes there is still work to be done to make sure the US continues to support the forward movement of India on everything from poverty to clean energy.
"That is going to require that we put resources to it. It is going to require that we strengthen our diplomatic relationship. And it is going to mean that we continue to advocate for democracy in the bigger sense of the word that includes religious freedom and tolerance in both India and the US," Jayapal said.
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She also said it would be difficult for any kind of bipartisan support the agenda of the Republicans, who control both the House and the Senate, if the president-elect tries to implement some of his campaign rhetoric including those against religious minorities and undocumented immigrants.
"The priorities that I ran on and that I remain deeply committed to includes free college, really making college affordable, raising the minimum wage and providing economic opportunities to working people," she said, adding that, it includes working on climate, environment and expanding social security.
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"Those are diametrically opposed to our values and that is going to make very difficult for a bipartisan cooperation," Jayapal said.
"Absolutely. No question," she said when asked if she plans to be the first line of defence against Trump's policies on civil rights, minorities and undocumented immigrants.
Responding to a question on response from the Indian- Americans, she said it has made her very proud and humbled.
"It (response) has been so amazing. The responses that I have got from Indian-Americans all over the country particularly Indian-American women who see themselves represented in a different way and see it as a possibility for themselves," she said.
Jayapal completed her graduation from Georgetown University and earned her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. In between she took up a job at the Wall Street in New York.
In recognition of her community work among the immigrants, the White House in 2012 felicitated her with "Champion of Change" award.
Jayapal says her life transformed for the better after she spent some time in India when she returned to the country after a gap of 25 years in April 1995.
"Living in India rejuvenated my spirit, brought alive parts of me that had faded into background of a modern life that is sometimes too efficient, where emotions are shielded by good manners, where space exits so bodies do not touch on buses or trains. In India I touched and was touched every day, by people, by scenes, by thoughts in my continuously bubbling mind," Jayapal wrote in her book based on her experience of living in India some two decades she left her motherland.
The book was based on her visit to India in April 1995.
"Behind all of the professional reasons to return to India was my intuition that my discovery of India would centre on a discovery of self, and that ultimately my professional and personal lives would fuse together in inexplicable and powerful ways," she wrote.