4 Indian-American women racially abused in Texas, told to 'go back to India'
Washington (PTI): Four Indian-American women have been racially abused and smacked by a Mexican-American woman in the US state of Texas who hurled racist slurs at them that they are "ruining" America and should "go back to India".
The incident took place on Wednesday night in a parking lot in Dallas, Texas. The woman, who has now been arrested, is seen in the video identifying herself as a Mexican-American and assaulting a group of Indian-Americans.
"I hate you Indian. All these Indians come to America because they want a better life," Esmeralda Upton is seen saying in the video.
The video shows her telling the group of women to "Go back to India. You... people are ruining this country," the CBS News reported.
The video has now gone viral and sent shock waves among the Indian-American community across the United States.
The video shows Upton using racial slurs, and at one point physically smacking at least two of the women.
The person who posted this video wrote, "this incident occurred in Dallas, Texas after my mom and her three friends went to dinner".
The mom is seen contesting the arguments made by the Mexican-American woman and requesting her not to make racial slurs. At one point in time, the Mexican-American woman, who says she was born in the United States, is seen assaulting the mom and her other friends as well.
"Everywhere I ... go, you Indians are ... everywhere," she is seen screaming in the video. "If life was so great in India, why are you here," she shouted while inserting the f-word and suddenly started assaulting the four Indian women.
Plano Police Detectives arrested Esmeralda Upton of Plano on Thursday afternoon. She has been charged with assault, bodily injury and terroristic threats and is being held on a total bond amount of USD 10,000.
"This is so scary. She actually had a gun and wanted to shoot because these Indian-American women had accents while speaking English. Disgusting. This awful woman needs to be prosecuted for a hate crime, Reema Rasool said on Twitter.
This incident is currently under investigation by the Plano Police Department's Crime Against Persons Unit as a hate crime.
Groups in North Texas with ties to the South Asian American community condemned the attack and said they were relieved that a suspect had been arrested.
Urmeet Juneja, president of the India Association of North Texas, said he thinks North Texas has largely been a welcoming and safe place for people who are of South Asian descent, The Dallas Morning News reported.
We are happy that law enforcement has taken swift action and arrested this person. Still, we also think that they should conduct a fair investigation and get to the bottom of the matter and take this hate crime investigation to its conclusion, Juneja said.
The events in Plano remind me of stories my parents and their friends told me over and over in the wake of 9/11 of fellow Americans seeing them as others and enemies, said Saatvik Ahluwalia, a spokesman for Asian Texans for Justice was quoted as saying by the report.
Chanda Parbhoo, executive director of South Asian American Voter Engagement of Texas, said in a statement: While we are relieved our community members are safe, listening to their cries for help from the verbal, physical, and racist abuse this woman was unleashing in that dark parking lot is infuriating.
This is so scary. She actually had a gun and wanted to shoot because these Indian American women had accents while speaking English.
— Reema Rasool (@reemarasool) August 25, 2022
Disgusting. This awful woman needs to be prosecuted for a hate crime. pic.twitter.com/SNewEXRt3z
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LPG crisis: Karnataka temples gear up to stock wooden logs for ‘Prasada’
Bengaluru (PTI): Temples in Karnataka have started preparations to stock wooden logs fearing that the LPG shortage could hamper the ‘Prasada’ preparation and distributions to the devotees.
The looming LPG crisis in the state in the wake of Iran-Israel conflict has made the temple managements jittery.
According to the Akhila Karnataka Hindu Temple Archakas Federation (AKHTAF) president M S Venkatachalaiah, there is no immediate crisis in the temples.
“We have LPG cylinder stock that can last for a week but if this scarcity continues then there will be a problem in serving Prasada (offerings to the deity) to the devotees,” AKHTAF president said.
He added that many temples in the state have started stocking wooden logs to overcome the LPG crisis.
“Our temples have started preparing to store wooden logs to prepare Prasada though currently we don’t have a problem, at least for a week,” Venkatachalaiah told PTI.
Another priest working in a temple belonging to the state Endowment Department said the temples may have to go back to the traditional way of cooking as done in the ancient time using wood.
The LPG crisis has not affected the mid-day meal programme for government school students yet, though there was a meeting in the Education Department to find ways to tackle if crisis deepens, sources associated with the Mid-day Meal programme said.
Meanwhile, the largest partner of the Mid-day Meal programme in the country is Akshaya Patra.
The NGO said they do not depend much on LPG gas cylinder.
“The LPG crisis has not affected us. Our kitchens are steam-based, and we generate steam through boilers which run on electricity. That’s point number one. Point number two—gas is used only for very minor things, mainly for seasoning. That is the tadka,” an Akshaya Patra executive told PTI.
According to him, the NGO has has a gas reserves for about nearly one month across India, though gas is used in very small quantities every day.
He pointed out that the Mid-day meal programme will not be affected because in one or one-and-a-half weeks, schools will close owing to summer vacation.
Akshaya Patra feeds 23.5 lakh children across more than 24,000 schools across India, in 16 states and three Union Territories, he said.
