Kin blames Trump policies for shooting
hyderabad — The families of an Indian engineer who was killed and another who was injured in the firing by an American in Kansas have blamed the policies of President Donald Trump for the incident.
While parents of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was shot dead, were too shocked to speak, his relatives said the action of the former Navy serviceman was a result of Trump’s policies.
“It shows Trump is the prime reason,” was how Srinivas’ cousin R. Sastry reacted while talking to reporters at the engineer’s house at Bachupally on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
“The attacker made racist remark and asked them to get out of the country. It was clear that he wanted to target them,” said Sastry.
He said though many of his relatives were living in the US for 10 to 20 years, they never encountered any such incident.
“We feel threatened,” said another relative of Srinivas.
A pall of gloom descended on the house of Srinivas as grieving relatives pour in to console his parents.
His father K. Madhusudhana Sastry, 70, who retired as scientist from Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL), and mother Parvata Vardhini, were in a state of shock.
One of the three sons of Madhusudhana, Srinivas was living in US for over a decade.
He married in 2012 and his wife was also staying with him.
The suspect Adam Purinton reportedly got into an argument with the victims and hurled racial slurs. He yelled “get out of my country”, “terrorist” before shooting them.
Purinton, according to reports, provoked them into the argument asking their presence and work in his country, and how they are better than him.
The shooting on Wednesday night led news bulletins in India and triggered outrage on social media, where people voiced concern that US President Donald Trump’s “America First” position on immigration and jobs has fueled a climate of intolerance.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Friday that any loss of life was tragic, but it would be absurd to link the killing to Trump’s rhetoric.
“Obviously, any loss of life is tragic, but I’m not going to get into, like, to suggest that there’s any correlation I think is a bit absurd. So I’m not going to go any further than that,” Spicer, told reporters. “What the President’s response to it was, but also if there’s any concern that some of the rhetoric that the President or — that generally has been out here recently could have contributed in any way to that or stepped up violence?” he was asked.
Pratik Mathur, spokesman for the Indian embassy in Washington, said India had expressed “our deep concern over the incident” to the US government and requested a “thorough and speedy investigation.”
Many Indians initially welcomed Trump’s election, seeing his calls to restrict Muslim immigration as support for their country.
But the Trump administration may also have skilled Indian workers like Srinivas in mind as it considers curbing the H-1B visa programme, worrying both India’s $150 billion IT services industry and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. — Reuters,
He (Adam Purinton) asked us what visa are we currently on and whether we are staying here illegally. We didn’t react. People do stupid things all the time. This guy took it to the next level