The recent hate attacks against members of the Indian community in the U.S. were isolated actions of a few individuals and do not represent the sentiment of the American people towards India, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha , Ms. Swaraj said the government has discussed such attacks at the highest levels of diplomacy with the U.S. and has been assured of an investigation into the causes behind the incidents.
“People-to-people contacts are the foundation on which the India-U.S. strategic partnership has been built. Broad sections of the American society have expressed their deep sorrow over these incidents reassures us that despite these individual incidents, the American society values the people-to-people engagement between our two countries,” said Ms. Swaraj in her statement.
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A warm welcome
Ms. Swaraj, who made her first appearance in Parliament three months after she underwent a kidney transplant, was greeted by her colleagues with a spontaneous applause.
Ms. Swaraj said the U.S. had condemned these attacks at the highest levels. “The Government has taken up this issue with the U.S. Government at very high levels and conveyed our deep concerns. We have called for necessary measures to ensure the safety of [the] Indian diaspora and expeditious investigation into these incidents.”
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The response came after a series of attacks on Indians in the U.S.. In the first attack in Kansas on February 22, an IT professional, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was shot dead. It also left his colleague injured. On March 2, Harnish Patel, a U.S. national of Indian origin was shot dead in South Carolina. The third attack on March 4 injured Deep Rai.