Another Indian Student Killed: Is Now The Time For Issuing A Canada-Like Advisory For US?

One more Indian student has been killed in the United States (US). Twenty-year-old Paruchuri Abhijit, a resident of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, was found dead in a forest.

Abhijit was an engineering student in the prestigious Boston University. Police suspect that attackers killed him for money and laptop, then dumped his body. 

Not A One-Off Incident

Within the first 80 days of 2024 alone, nine Indian or Indian-origin Americans (mostly students) have died under mysterious circumstances or have been killed.

On 1 March 2024, Amarnath Ghosh, a 34-year-old trained classical dancer and a student of Washington University was also shot dead in St Louis, Missouri.

The first such incident this year was reported on 16 January when 25-year old Vivek Saini was hammered to death by a drug addict.

Other victims include Neel Acharya, Shreyas Reddy Benigeri, Akul Dhawan, 41-year-old IT executive Vivek Taneja, and 23-year-old Sameer Kamath among others. In Dhawan’s case, his father alleged police inaction on the issue.

What Are Authorities Doing?

On 10 February 2024, Eric Garcetti, US Ambassador to India assured Indian students that the US is "a wonderful place to study and to be safe".

On 16 February, 2024, the Joe Biden administration also released a statement to similar effect.

"The president and this administration have been working very, very hard to make sure we're doing everything we can to work with state and local authorities to try to thwart and disrupt those kinds of attacks and make it clear to anybody who might consider them that they'll be held properly accountable," said John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House. 

Unfortunately, no observable change has been noticed even after these statements.

A Unique Trend

There is the question of why only one national identity is under serial attacks. Even John Kirby acknowledged it.

"There is no excuse for violence, certainly based on race or gender or religion or any other factor. That's just unacceptable here in the United States," said Kirby.

“Not to exaggerate, but we deal with at least one death a day across the country and mostly among young students or H-1B employees who have recently immigrated to the US from India,” said Mohan Nannapaneni, founder of volunteer-based nonprofit organisation TEAM Aid in February.

USA Is Not The Only One

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), 403 Indian students died abroad between 2018 and December 2023. Canada, neighbour of the US, topped the chart with 91 deaths.

Prominent presence of anti-India Khalistani groups in the Canadian polity made life tougher for not just students, but also Canadian-Indians settled there, especially Hindus.

Multiple Hindu temples in Canada have been subjected to vandalism. Even highly cordoned places like the Indian embassy in Canada are not totally safe for Indians and have been attacked in the past.

After it became clear that the Justin Trudeau administration is not interested in putting an end to activities of such groups, the MEA issued an advisory for Indians on 20 September 2023.

“In view of growing anti-India activities and politically condoned hate crimes and criminal violence in Canada, all Indian nationals there and those contemplating travel are urged to exercise utmost caution,’’ read the advisory.

In the last quarter of 2023, an 86 per cent year-on-year decline was observed in study permits issued for Indian students in Canada.

The Canadian example shows what a government is forced to do when diplomatic efforts to secure its people go in vain. A similar advisory for Indian students going to the US could also be helpful. 

Study counsellors advertise the US as ‘land of opportunities’. Surely it is, but there is also gun culture, drug overdose, mental health crises, xenophobia, hate crimes and racism too in many parts of the country.

Indian students and families ought to be informed of the whole picture before departing for the US.