May 02, 2026 13:33 pm IST

Opinion | Dinner Shooting To 'Hellhole' Row To Immigration, US Has Never Been More Divided Than Now

How America became the home of the hateful, and where it can go from here

Tara Kartha Tara Kartha Columnist

Tara Kartha Columnist

The spewing of racial abuse from the President of the United States and his ministers continues, even as he came under threat from a would-be assassin from his own country, who himself seemed to be a victim of the polarisation unleashed by the present administration. What links the two otherwise disparate incidents together is hate. When domestic policy is framed by hate against the 'other' and foreign policy operates on another level of discrimination and violence, it's all likely to come together at a point. That time could be now. And not just in the firing of a few bullets by seemingly educated men.

The tendency of the President to use social media for anything and everything, including military diplomacy, is now well known. He chose to endorse a post by an appropriately named podcaster, Michael Savage, who then repeated his statements after the reaction of the Indian government, stressing that Indians were not loyal to the US , had taken away jobs from Americans, and, more in that vein. All of which shows his absolute ignorance of India - which might be forgiven - but also his total lack of knowledge of his own country. Indian Americans have created immense wealth in the country, with taxes alone to the tune of $300 billion and indirectly creating 11-12 million jobs. More comes from students, and it would be fair to say that most prominent universities survive on tuition fees by foreign students. Such talk from right-wingers is not unusual, but the point is that it........

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