Maybe reason will now prevail over why the brouhaha over the H1-B visas for Indians needs to be toned down. And Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to focus on protecting the rights of Indians who are already in the US, rather than campaigning for increasing the numbers in an unwilling country.
Since Donald Trump's election as the United States president, India has been near-obsessed with the restrictions feared to be laid down by the American government over the export of manpower across the Atlantic.
From corporate bigwigs and analysts, to politicians and policy-makers, and even the man on the street, who aspires to send his children to the land of the Green Card, most Indians have gone about tom-tomming how the US really needs our skillful countrymen to make this world a greater place to live in.
The shooting of Srinivas Kuchibhotla whispers otherwise...
The 32-year-old aviation engineer was shot dead while his colleague Alok Madasani, also 32, was injured in what is being considered a hate crime that took place in Olathe, Kansas City, on February 22. The shooter also injured Ian Grillot, a 24-year-old American, when he tried to intervene.
The usual condolences and right political noises will follow.
Gofundme had raised about $250,000 from over 6,500 people for 'Srinu's Family/Recovery Support' within 10 hours. Twitter has been awash with messages expressing shock, anger, disgust.
The cumulative effect of such outrage will not be enough to shine a spotlight on the issue of hate crimes with the intensity it deserves.
The voices against the menace need a more global echo, and leaders of top nations should not be making only occasional statements, just because people who happen to be the prime targets belong to developing countries.
The prime onus of raising the issue of the increasing instance of hate crimes in the US, of course, lies with the Indian PM himself.
While he is busy urging America to keep a balanced perspective about admitting skilled Indian workers in the country, the government also needs to ask questions, and seek answers.
About the activism required to spread the right awareness; the urgency with which cases against perpetrators of hate crimes are heard; the severity of punishment awarded; and the coverage that such trials warrant.
Racial offences often go unreported for fear of prejudice and local backlash, and low rates of conviction.
In California, 837 hate crime incidents were reported in 2015, up 10 per cent from the previous year, according to a report from the California Department of Justice, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) cited on its website.
California prosecuted 189 hate crime cases in 2015 (these crimes were not necessarily committed that year). In its 2015 hate crime report, the state confirmed that of those 138 cases with final court rulings, less than half — 59 cases — resulted in hate crime convictions.
The statistics are appalling for a country that prides itself on its legal justice system. As inexcusable is the lukewarm follow-up by Indian authorities over its citizens' sufferings abroad. This is an issue where governments of both countries owe their people a lot more than Twitter diplomacy.
