DNA Edit: The politics of polarisation that provides fuel for hate crimes

The killing of Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla in a hate crime reveals the dangers of political strategies that appeal to majoritarian sentiments. Srinivas was at a bar in Olathe in Kansas, a city in midwestern United States, enjoying a beer with a colleague, when Adam Purinton, a 51-year-old US military veteran, threatened them to leave the US. It speaks highly of the US tradition of liberalism that the staff at the bar asked Purinton to leave. When Purinton returned with a gun and fired at Srinivas and his colleague, Alok Madasani, it was another American, Ian Grillot, who intervened to save the lives of the two Indians, and took a bullet for his act of valour. In one incident, the world witnessed the best and worst of America, and the best and worst of humanity.

Like every other part of the world, the US, a veritable melting pot of cultures — with a history of slavery and racism and gritty opposition to these abominable practices and beliefs, by both African and Caucasian Americans — has been no stranger to hate crimes. For the South Asian community, wary about the implications of Donald Trump’s aggressive courting of the community of white supremacists among other demographic feelings disenfranchised by the rise of immigrant communities, the Olathe shooting will be a matter of grave concern. Of course, isolated acts of hate were witnessed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. There was also the 2012 shooting at a Sikh gurdwara in Wisconsin by a white supremacist and US Army veteran killing six people. But the mainstreaming of hate politics by Trump in his daring pursuit of the US presidency will now have to be aggressively called into question.

A lone ranger, or a lone wolf, might have been behind this attack, but they do not operate in vacuum. There is no shortage of literature, digital content and grassroots organisations that espouse racist and majoritarian beliefs, but when the top elected official of the country targets the same sections as these fringe outfits, the implications are dangerous. It can embolden more such groups or individuals to violence. Purinton assumed that Srinivas and Alok were “Middle-Eastern” men. In the run-up to his election and as President, Trump has vilified Muslims and immigrants, putting them in grave danger from hate crimes. For non-Muslim ethnic minorities who took cover under the belief that they would not be targeted, this is a wake-up call to stand up for Muslims, homosexuals, Mexicans, and every other group under threat.

Srinivas’ wife, Sunayana Dumala, in her courageous and heartbreaking public statement, put the onus on the US government to deal with hate crimes. She also spoke of her husband’s love for the United States and his faith that it would overcome the polarising rhetoric and the violence of the times. Kansas, where Trump won 56 per cent of the popular vote in the presidential elections, must ask itself whether men like Srinivas were an asset to its economy and society or not, and whether he deserved such an end. The likes of men like Grillot who said Alok would now be his best friend are the best hope to countering the politics of hate. Trump has unleashed a monster, and it is his responsibility to bottle this genie.