US President Joe Biden celebrated Diwali at the White House on Monday at an event attended by more than 600 prominent Indian Americans, news agency PTI reported.

“As president, I have had the honor of hosting the largest Diwali receptions ever held at the White House. To me it means a lot. As Senator, Vice President and President; South Asian Americans have been key members of my staff,” the US President said as he addressed Indian American members of Congress, officials and business leaders from across the country.

“From Kamala to Dr. Murthy and to so many of you here today, I am proud to have kept my promise to have a government that looks like America,” Joe Biden added.

Biden’s speech was preceded by an introduction by Indian-American youth activist Shrusti Amula and speeches by Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, the US surgeon general; Sunita Williams, the retired Navy officer and NASA astronaut who sent a recorded video message from the International Space Station.

Vice President Kamala Harris and first lady Dr. Jill Biden were absent from the event due to commitments on the campaign trail.

Recalling the first Diwali celebration held at the White House in 2016, Biden noted that a “dark cloud formed out of hatred and hostility toward immigrants, including South Asian Americans” had reappeared in 2024, just as it did then.

“An Irish Catholic president, then vice president, opened our home to holidays by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and more. How America reminds us all of our power to be the light, all of us,” he said.

Biden lit the formal diya in the Blue Room of the White House and took the opportunity to thank the South Asian American community for its role in American democracy.

“On this day in America we reflect on that journey of light. From early in our country’s founding, a generation before Diya, under the shadow of suspicion, Diwali is now celebrated openly and proudly here at the White House,” he said.