Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina, the Republican co-chair of the India Caucus, for whom the unveiling of the Saund portrait is of particular significance, because he was the only member of Congress to expressly advocate the placing of Saund's portrait on Capitol Hill -- a campaign he waged for over three years -- declared, "What a wonderful person he was, what a pioneer, what a great American hero he is."
"And, I was happy to introduce the resolution (calling on the House to place a portrait of the late lawmaker either in the US Capitol Building or in a House office building) in 2004 and again in 2005, and I want to thank our former Speaker Dennis Hastert, who without a resolution went ahead and provided for the authorisation and funding. I also want to thank our current Speaker Nancy Pelosi," Wilson said.
"So it's really been a bipartisan effort and what an extraordinary time for all of us who appreciate the contribution of Asian-Americans and Indian-Americans," he added.
Speaker Pelosi, although she couldn't make it for the event, released a statement which also described it as "truly a historic day. It is my pleasure to welcome to the Capitol of the United States, the People's House, the portrait of the first Asian-American member of Congress, the Honorable Dalip Singh Saund."
She said, "As part of a series commissioned by the House Fine Arts Board to include historically significant members of the House, this portrait of Congressman Saund joins the line of portraits of the first woman elected to the Congress Jeanette Rankin; the first African- American elected to the Congress Joseph Rainey; and the first Hispanic-American elected to the Congress Romulado Pacheco."
Pelosi also decribed Saund's life as "the American dream" and said here was "an immigrant from India, he came to this country to further his education and worked hard to build his life and care for his family, despite the discrimination that many Asians faced during the 1920s."
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