“I was very much concerned about our safety in the US and we were disturbed on seeing newspaper reports on racial and hate crimes against Indians wherever they happened. But he (Srinivas) used to assure me. We never imagined this would happen to us. Now what will I tell to our relatives back home?” asked a teary-eyed Sunayana. She was planning Srinivas’ 33rd birthday on 9 March.
“We have read many times in newspapers of some kind of shooting happening somewhere. I was always concerned. Are we doing the right thing staying in the US? But he always assured me that good things will happen to good people. He loved this country so much that he didn’t deserve a death like this,” said Sunayana.
Her video clips are widely telecast in local TV channels and social media since Saturday morning, even as the parents of software engineers based in the US are panicked over the safety of their children amid growing racial abuse and hate crimes against Indians since recently, especially after the assumption of office by President Trump, five weeks ago. Sunayana, too, is a techie.
Srinivas and his colleague Maddasani Alok Reddy, 32, belong to Telugu families. Srinivas’ father, Madhusudhan Rao, lives in Hyderabad, while Reddy’s family is from Warangal in Telangana, but his father Jaganmohan Reddy, too, lives in the city. Both Srinivas and Alok are employed with Garmin, a technology company involved with aviation engineering.
The shootout that claimed the life of Srinivas and injured Alok and another by US citizen Adam Purinton, 51, has come as a rude shock to families of Telugu techies in the US who are estimated to number around four lakh, including engineering students. Srinivas’ murder came within two weeks since the killing of another Telugu speaking techie, Vamsi Reddy, 27, in California by a US citizen in a road rage related incident. Though the techies have been sharing racial abuses that they have been receiving from Americans for long, this is the first time that a US citizen bluntly shouted Indians “get out of my country”.
The atmosphere at the homes of both Srinivas and Alok Reddy in the city was pathetic. As hordes of relatives and friends descended there to express their solidarity and share the grief, the parents and family members wept inconsolably. “My son (Srinivas) was to visit us in July this year for a brief vacation,” Madhusudhan Rao told the gathering. He has three sons, two of whom are now in Hyderabad. The situation at Alok Reddy’s house was better as he is declared out of danger and is likely to be released from hospital by Sunday. Alok Reddy’s parents are leaving for the US on Sunday night to join with him, while Srinivas’ body will be brought to Hyderabad on Monday at 8.30 pm, as per the information provided by Sushma Swaraj’s OSD to Telangana IT minister K.T. Rama Rao. Friends of Srinivas have launched crowd-funding to the tune of around Rs 2 crore to bring the body back as well as to support his family in times of distress. What soothed the grief stricken families was the constant communication maintained with them by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj since the crime occurred in the US. “She told me that Government of India is taking steps to bring my brother’s body back and punish the culprit,” said Kuchibhotla K. Shastry, elder brother of Srinivas, while talking to media at his house on Saturday.
Officials of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments, too, are in touch with the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi over the safety of a large number of Telugu speaking techies in the US. The officials are closely monitoring the reports that the FBI would also be probing the racial and hate crime angle in the Kansas shootout.
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 rhetoric.
IT Minister KTR, who called on Srinivas’ parents in Hyderabad on Saturday evening, said the Telangana government would lead a delegation to the Centre seeking protection to Telugu techies in the US. “We are concerned over an emerging pattern of attacks on Indians and especially those from our state. We hope this trend will subside soon,” he said outside Kuchibhotla’s house in the city.