Indians targeted

Hate crimes against Indians in the USA are growing. The advent of the Donald Trump administration earlier this year witnessed the recrudescence of white supremacists driven underground by the strong civil rights crusade of the 1950s and 1960s. Institutions and leaders of white supremacists have come together under one propaganda outlet codenamed “alt right,” whose chief ideologue, Stephen Bannon, sits next to President Trump in the Oval Office as one of his top advisers. World attention is drawn to the pestiferous Islamophobia but hidden from sight is the overall sentiment against immigrants from third world countries. What is surprising is that in the recent spell of hate crimes only Indians and people of Indian origin are being targeted. There are people from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka who resemble Indians but singling out Indians from among them is rather perplexing. The majority of Indians in America not only voted for Trump in last year’s election but also raised huge funds and campaigned for him. America is not a white nation as countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand were once. It was a nation of immigrants where whites, blacks, browns and Latinos co-existed. Indians are by far the most prosperous immigrant community in America and are the envy of the less educated whites. In the last fortnight, Srinivas Kuchibhotla was killed and Alok Madasami was shot at in Olathe City in Kansas on 22 February. The next day, an Indian-origin girl was racially abused on a train in New York. On 2 March, Harnish Patel, a 43-year-old shopkeeper, was shot dead outside his home in Lancaster, South Carolina. The following day, Deep Singh Rai, a 39-year-old Sikh, was shot and injured outside his home in Kent, California. Trump had described India as a true friend of America soon after his inauguration. It took him almost a week to condemn the killings. India’s ambassador to the USA, Navtej Sarna, conveyed the nation’s deep concerns to the US government while the State Department expressed condolences and assured it was working with all agencies concerned to ensure speedy justice to the victims. Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal wanted External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to intervene in the matter and address the issue while the Punjab Congress president, Amarinder Singh, wanted the Modi government to engage with the Trump administration to preempt any further hate crimes against Indians in the USA. The problem is of intolerance and hate and that cannot be fixed easily by government fiats of either India or the USA. However, it is interesting to note Indian travellers visiting the USA have more than doubled in the last decade. About 1.1 million Indians visited the USA in 2015 and spent close to $12 billion. The two countries have kicked off talks to expand air connectivity with more non-stop flights, allowing frequent Indian visitors quicker exit at the airports under America’s Global Entry programme.