5

Mar

Insecure Indian Lives Getting in the U.S.

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Today’s Edition

New Delhi, 5 March 2024

Atul Cowshish

 

According to newspaper reports, there has been a disconcerting rise in the number of loss of Indian lives in the U.S. during recent months. Hardly a month or week passes without reports of Indians, especially Indian students on U.S. campuses, not being found murdered. There have also been cases of alleged suicide and familicide and in one case a young Indian student was found frozen to death.

Though it may lack ‘scientific evidence’, sitting here in India one would suspect that the Indians—and Americans of Indian origin—are more often than not targeted victims of hatred. The inadequate gun control laws in the U.S. make it easier for trigger-happy lunatics to attack the Indians.

Most of the victims in the U.S. seem to come from India or are persons with roots in India. But it is somewhat surprising that persons from other South Asian countries have by and large managed to escape the fatal attacks. If the persons from India’s neighbourhood have devised ways to escape attempts on their lives Indians should unhesitatingly learn from them.

Or, could it be that their governments are more vigilant and assertive than the government of India and the land called ‘Vishwaguru’ by the Indian media? Not to be taken as an attempt to sound trite, but if the ‘Vishwaguru’ can stop the war in Ukraine being fought with bombs and artillery, then it should not be difficult to order an immediate end to fatal attacks on Indians on U.S. soil!

Let’s not be fooled; the average American, especially those raised in small towns, is rather intolerant of ‘aliens’ who they see following ‘weird’ religions and can be easily told apart from the White and Black Americans by the colour of their skin. The sight of these ‘aliens’ is to be resented because they are ‘unwanted’ guests and come to the land of ‘emancipated’ Americans—often unlawfully-- to take away their jobs.

Despite all the ingratiating efforts of the present Indian government, the stereotypical image of the Indians has stayed and not made them endearing to the tribe of white U.S. supremacists who thrived at double speed during the administration presided over by Donald Trump with whom the current Indian Prime Minister has reportedly developed close personal bond.

Rushing into a tight hug with the Americans, the Modi administration seems to have decided not to press the Americans too hard on matters like the safety and security of young Indian lives even when according to media reports, Indian students are on the verge of outnumbering the Chinese to become the biggest lot of foreign students in the U.S..

The government of India might face awkward questions if it raises the issue of ‘hatred’ and ‘intolerance’ with a foreign government when in the last decade there has been a surfeit of these traits in India. 

Incidentally, it strikes one as odd that the government which swears by ‘sanskars’ ‘traditions’ and badmouths ‘foreign culture’ has been unable to stop the constantly growing outflow of Indian students to foreign universities. Could it be because the young and bright Indian minds believe that they can expand their horizons only by studying in an atmosphere of genuine academic freedom which is being denied on Indian campuses?

People with a conscience must have been shocked to learn that upon the death of a young Telugu-speaking female student in the U.S.--after an over-speeding U.S. policeman ran over her—the cop was heard laughing and saying that her life couldn’t be worth much. The more shocking fact was that the cop was freed after the trial.

The government of India should have resolutely and ‘strongly’ pursued the matter with the U.S. administration but the word ‘strong’ is bandied about by the External Affairs Ministry only when talking about protesting demonstrations against Indian diplomats, not after gross injustice and shoddy investigation in a matter of an Indian homicide victim, either by a civilian or a policeman.

Even on the front of ‘threats’ to Indian diplomats in the U.S., not much improvement seems visible. A Sikh separatist with dual U.S. and Canada passports who India was allegedly trying to assassinate with hired help continues to harass Indian diplomats in the U.S. and has moved a step ahead by periodically issuing threats of creating mayhem in India. His arena of ‘freedom’ has expanded after India’s protests with the U.S..   

Both the U.S. and Canada have been badgering India with unsubstantiated allegations of ‘interference’ in their ‘internal affairs’ by hiring ’hit men’ to bump off Sikh separatists. The two big countries of North America have shown no interest in providing ‘proof’ that India demands but they will not retract from the allegation they made against India. Clearly, India has been rather submissive before the Americans because for the government the more important thing is to be on the right side of the Americans.

The young and bright Indians who join the U.S. campuses are left to fend for themselves—and arrange their own safety. Neither the host nor the Indian government seems to have much interest in making them feel not only welcome but safe and secure. The graph of Indo-U.S. ties may continue to surge, but at what human cost?   (Words 885)

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