California: Days after the Plano Police Department in Texas arrested a woman for vilifying four Indian women for their ethnicity, a video has surfaced on social media where an Indian-American man can be seen hurling racial slurs at another Indian. The incident reportedly occurred in California’s Fremont on August 21 when Krishnan Jayaraman was abused and called a “dirty Hindu” by 37-year-old Tejinder Singh, who also happens to be of Indian descent.
The video of the incident was widely shared on social media. Singh can be heard using the N-word, and repeatedly calling the person behind the camera, Krishnan, disgusting and nasty. “This ain’t India,” the abuser railed.
Krishnan was agitated over the fact that the person abusing him was also an Indian. He was frightened that the abuser might follow him to inflict more harm, so he called the police. Fremont Police have charged Tejinder Singh with a hate crime in violation of civil rights, assault and disturbing the peace using offensive language.
While the Fremont Police is investigating the matter, Police Chief Sean Washington addressed the community on social media. He termed the incident despicable and assured the legitimate action against hate crimes. "We take hate incidents and hate crimes seriously and understand the significant impact they have on our community. These incidents are despicable. We are here to protect all community members, regardless of their gender, race, nationality, religion, and other differences. We would like to urge the community to be respectful of each other and to immediately report any circumstances such as this that, upon investigation, may rise to the level of a crime”.
Rohit Khanna, a US House representative from California, took to Twitter to condemn the incident. “We must condemn every form of discrimination, including hate directed at Hindus.”
