Who killed Srinivas Kuchibhotla?

  The obvious answer is that President Trump with his demonization of immigrants was the reason behind the tragic shooting of the Indian-origin engineer in Kansas City, by a white, former US soldier. But that obvious answer is facile, and the real question is two-fold: what does this mean for Indians in the US, and what can be done to prevent such tragedies in future? That there is racism in America is without a doubt. There have many Indian victims of this racism: see the United States v Bhagat Singh Thind ruling of 1923, whereby naturalized US citizens of Indian origin were stripped of citizenship, or the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, when Indian immigrants were not allowed to disembark by Canada and the US. Then there was Navroze Mehta, beaten to death in the 1970s by a gang of ‘Dot-busters’. Khem Singh, an elderly Sikh priest was starved to death by his jailers in 2004, and Maya Nand, an Indian-origin Fijian died of untreated diabetes in an immigration jail in 2008. All this happened under all sorts of Presidents. Under President Obama, at least twenty Telugu-speaking youngsters were murdered in a remarkable orgy of violence. And Divyendu Sinha, beaten to death in 2010. And not Indians alone. A Chinese was beaten to death, mistaken for a Japanese, in Detroit, when Japanese car imports boomed. There was the incarceration of Japanese Americans in concentration camps exactly 75 years ago. Then there is the #BlackLivesMatter campaign. During the Iran hostage crisis under Jimmy Carter, many screamed at Indians to “go home”, mistaking them for Iranians. So it is not productive blaming Trump, although his brand of hostility may well be the proximate cause of Srinivas’ death. Racism is as American as apple pie. Tweeter-in-chief Trump was silent about Srinivas. But perhaps the preponderant cause of Srinivas Kuchibhotla’s death is the Left and their #DeepState disdain for India. FOIL, Indian-origin American Lefties, did not go ballistic now as they did when Amadou Diallo, a Guinean, was killed in 1999. In that signature conclave of the Left, the Oscar Awards 2017, not one bleeding-heart liberal saw fit to say a word about Srinivas. Why? It shows how much Indians matter. There is also the Left vendetta against Trump. They have demonized him and campaigned to remove him by any means fair and foul. The #Resistance movement advocates a constitutional coup, with violence thrown in. We in India are familiar with this tactic regarding PM Narendra Modi (remember Karan Thapar and his “sudden removal” meme?). There have been continuous efforts to create law-and-order problems, and thus, regime change (Ironically, that did happen, to Lefties themselves, when in 1959 EMS Namboothiripad was overthrown by Jawaharlal Nehru using Article 356). Actually in Modi’s case, it goes back to the Godhra burning of 59 pilgrims on Feb 27, 2002. I write this on March 1, and I find it remarkable that the entire mainstream media and Lefties in India still insist that there were Feb 29, 30, and 31 in 2002, and thus hold Modi responsible for “not acting for three whole days to bring in the Army”. The Left indulges in violence wherever they can get away with it. Both in India and in the US, they ally with Islamists. In Godhra, Islamist Congressmen committed the atrocity, with the (desired?) end result that India had to abandon Operation Parakram, wherein it had massed troops on the Pakistan border. In Kerala, the ruling Left has hacked or burned to death 11 Hindus in nine months. In the US, some leaders of the Women’s March were both Islamist and Leftist, and radical feminists made a point of wearing an American-flag hijab. An act of rebellion against white Christian patriarchy, yes, but perhaps a bit counter-productive? The Left assault on Trump, led by the NYT, WaPo, Guardian and Economist, has vitiated the atmosphere to such an extent and made violence so acceptable that they are encouraging aggrieved whites like the Kansas City shooter to act out their fantasies. But the root cause behind Srinivas’ death is continuing Islamist violence as seen recently in Sweden and France. There is a cohort in the US that looks at the Islamist assault on Europe and dreads how this might play out in the US. They elected Trump. Stories of ISIS malfeasance and other Islamist brutality suggest to unsophisticated whites that brown people are dangerous (although, again ironically, most Arabs are not brown but white). Where does this leave Indian-Americans? No, the Indian government isn’t going to save them. To put it bluntly, this is an occupational hazard of living in a racist, gun-crazy country. They will get no sympathy whatsoever from the Left, as they are not a designated ‘victim’ group – not from the Middle East, and mostly not Muslims. The Right is caught up in Christian evangelism. I’m sorry to say this, but arming themselves and being vigilant in public places may be the only answer for Indian-Americans.

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