Across from the White House at Lafayette Square Park, the Indian American community held an Awareness Rally and protest against racially motivated hate crimes committed against the community members across the nation. Several hundred people have participated in the event on a cold Sunday afternoon during 1-4PM. They represented various organizations includin
The Indian Diaspora is concerned for the safety and well-being of their families in lieu of the recent incidents in Kansas where a young engineer from Hyderabad was killed and other injured; In Kent, Washington, a young man was shot in his drive way; In South Carolina, a young businessman was killed in-front of his house; In Florida, an attempt was made to burn down the business shop;In Colorado, the home was ransacked and vandalized; In Maryland, a woman was stopped because she did not look like an ” American ” even if she had lived at her home for nearly 30 years; In New York city, a man abused an Indian American woman asking her to go back to her country. Many more incidents like these are happening all over the country and the community wants to organize itself and peacefully resist this prevailing racial discrimination.
The event convener, Dr. Adapa Prasad said that this is the first step in the community’s resistance. “In the next step, small groups of community leaders will meet the law makers at Capitol Hill as well as in their respective districts and apprise them of the community’s concerns. Later, during next month, a legal cell will be formed to fight at the legal front”, he said.
Mr. Kanwaljit Soni said that the some of the community members are serving both Republican and Democrat parties and they shall bring community concerns to the attention of the US administration. Mr. Satish Korpestated that the community is very upset and are getting organized in various counties and states and petitioning their respective state Governors and law makers. Mr. Puneet Ahluwalia, a leader of the community and a higher official of the Virginia State Republican Party, participated in the rally in solidarity with the community and pledged to raise these issues and concerns to the party platform.
The Community members who came from different cities and from different walks of life to protest in the nation’s capital made one public statement, “ people of Indian origin are peace loving and hard working families who contributes to the prosperity of their adopted land and these kinds of racially motivated hate crimes should stop immediately”. They urged the President of the United States to come out strongly condemning these racially motivated hate crimes and apply the stringent federal hate crimes law against the perpetrators of these hate crimes.
The community is appreciative of the fact that large majority of Americans never condone these spiteful acts of hate mongers and racists. The Indian Diaspora is very much appreciative of the External Affairs Minister of India, Smt. Sushma Swaraj’s quick responses to the incidents. Her proactive help instilled confidence in the Indian Diaspora to cope up during this scare environment. Officials from Embassy of India and its consulates are of tremendous help to the community in this hour of distress and the community is expressing thanks for their services.
Dr. Adapa Prasad, the convener of the event along with Co Conveners, Mr. Kanwaljit Soni, Mr.Lakshminarayana Peri, Dr. Hari Har Singh, Mr. Ramesh Annamreddy, Dr. Renuka Mishra, Dr. D. S.Sawhney, Dr. Surinder Sing Gill, Mr. Baljinder Singh Shammi, Dr. Satish Mishra, Mr. Upendra Nadipalli, Mr. Sameer Chandra, Mr. Srinivas Regula, Mr. Shreekant Nayak and many others helped in organizing this Awareness rally successfully.
Also, many visiting white Americans have showed their solidarity and joined the rally. The group submitted a petition to an official of the Republican Party to forward to the president of United States (Attached). OFBJP President, Shri Krishna Reddy said that he is coordinating with other Indian American organizations to bring awareness about Indian Americans across USA.
Released by: External Communications Committee, OFBJP-USA
