DNA Edit: Trump condemns Kansas ‘shooting’ , but was that enough?

After a distasteful inaugural address where he snubbed career politicians and blamed them for letting down the American middle class, US President Donald Trump’s first address to both houses of Congress was keenly awaited for more diatribes. Instead, he tried to strike a conciliatory tone, at least with the Republican group, and called for greater unity in US society. It was important that in his speech to Congress, Trump took note of the shooting at Olathe in Kansas in which Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla was killed. Trump did not disappoint on that count and the incident, which has all the trappings of a hate crime, found prominent mention at the beginning of his speech. His silence for days after the incident had disappointed the Indian community and would have rankled with the Indian government, one of the few US allies who have chosen to maintain a studied silence on the first months of the Trump administration. 

Referring to the ‘last week’s shooting in Kansas city’ and the threats and vandalism of Jewish centres as soon as his speech commenced, Trump said that the US “may be a Nation divided on policies, but we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms”. Coming from a man who fanned anti-immigrant sentiments in the course of his election campaign, the statement will partly assuage the worries that the South Asian community have harboured since the shocking incident from last week. But it can be argued that the very brief mention of Kansas without delving into the circumstances of the crime or the social and ethnic background of the victim is hardly a ringing condemnation of hate crimes. It will not be lost on many that white supremacists are one of Trump’s most loyal votebanks. 

It is Trump’s legitimate prerogative to take a hard line against illegal immigration and “terrorism-related” offences committed by individuals from outside the country. But the tendency of those driven by hatred to target people hailing from foreign nationalities, merely because of their skin colour, deserves to be harped upon so that the message is loud and clear. Unfortunately, that was not forthcoming, and Srinivas’ wife Sunayana Dumala’s pointed demand to the US government to answer for hate crimes was acknowledged, but an elaborate condemnation will have to wait for some more time. 

That the Indian diplomatic establishment does not feel the need to issue a demarche confirms the thinking in New Delhi that the Kansas shooting is an isolated incident and that US authorities are competent to deal with the safety of Indians living in the US. Yet another matter of concern for New Delhi, the US policy on H1B visas and business process outsourcing did not figure in Trump’s speech, an indication that he may be softening his stance on the issue. But the shift of manufacturing jobs to China was broached even though Trump did not offer any specifics on how to stanch the departure of US companies to other shores. Barack Obama was unequivocal in his condemnation of hatred, gun violence and racist attacks. In contrast, Trump is still understanding how political rhetoric translates hatred and violence on the ground.