US racial tensions shock NRI groups

Vijayawada: The rise in hatred towards non-Americans in the US is a worry to the large numbers of Indian youths working there and also to their parents back home.

A few NRIs who had worked in the areas considered most dangerous in the US have expressed shock over the latest murder incident in Kansas City, and blamed the Trump administration for the bad turn.

The murder of Telugu engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla from Hyderabad on Wednesday night in Kansas is believed to be racially motivated and a hate crime.

This has come as a major shock to the Indian community there. After Donald Trump was sworn in as President, the racial and ethnic divide among various communities is widening in the US, with protests erupting there against his alleged racist views.

The Telangana government took stock of the situation in the US, with the IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy speaking to TANA former president and the AP special representative for North America (APSRNA) Komati Jayaram on Friday evening. “My advice to the NRI community in US is to be a little cautious while moving around, and if possible avoid the sensitive pockets there,” Mr. Komati Jayaram told this newspaper later. “We can’t judge the circumstances there with stray incidents,” said Mr. Jayaram from Vijayawada, his native city.

From Trump’s executive orders barring entry for immigrants from some countries into the US, to the proposed ‘End Outsourcing Act’, the new government’s actions have been a nightmare to the Indians. The first jolt in a series of hard blows against the Indian community came when the US department of education cancelled its recognition for the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS).

Following the revoking of the authority of the US’s largest accreditor of for-profit colleges, the Indian students (graduates) of these institutions have been left in the lurch. They, among other things, were denied of an OPT (optional practical training) extension.