Sikhs in US ‘intimidated, harassed’ at alarming rate
Sunday, 02/04/2017
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=175394&boxid=65833&uid=&dat=2017-04-02
Washington: Sikhs in the US are reporting an increase in violent threats and harassment against the community amid rising incidents of hate crimes against Indian-Americans in the country. Chairman of the Sikhs Political Action Committee (SikhsPAC), Gurinder Singh Khalsa said so far there have been two death threats and two reports of vandalism against Sikhs in the state of Indiana, TheIndyChannel.com, an ABC Television Network affiliate, reported on Thursday.
One incident included a direct threat against a Sikh from a man carrying a handgun in Fishers city, according to the report. “Somebody showed him the gun and asked him: ‘Who are you? What country do you belong to?’” Khalsa said there have been other incidents too where Sikhs were threatened. Sikh-American physician Amandeep Singh said he was directly threatened last week with a text message and doesn’t understand why this is happening to Sikhs around the nation.
Singh said he felt a range of emotions after the threats, including fear for his family and his patients. “Fear, especially if you have family, kids, the safety of your family and kids, that comes to mind first,” said Amandeep. “Then you try to make sense of it.” “I believe I’ve been living here 14 years and never experienced anything like that specifically,” Singh said.
India to grow at 7.7 pc in 2018: Jaitley
New Delhi: Emerging markets face newer challenges in the form of inward looking policies of protectionism and increased geopolitical tension, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday as he pegged India’s GDP growth at 7.7 per cent in 2018. Speaking at the second annual meeting of the New Development Bank (NDB) here, Jaitley said global growth is moving upwards and is expected to improve further in 2017-18.
“Indian economy is expected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2017 and at the rate of 7.7 per cent in 2018,” he said. Jaitley said emerging market economies (EMEs) face newer challenges in the form of inward looking policies of protectionism of some economies, global financial condition, policies of the United States and increased geopolitical tension.
He said India has sought USD 2 billion loans for various projects from the NDB, which is set up by the emerging nations India, China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa. “India has huge unmet infrastructure funding needs...US $646 billion is required in next 5 years for financing infrastructure,” Jaitley said.
