{"id":191880,"date":"2026-01-05T11:30:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T06:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/?p=191880"},"modified":"2026-01-05T11:30:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T06:30:43","slug":"hotmail-founder-flags-surge-in-racism-anti-muslim-violence-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/2026\/01\/05\/hotmail-founder-flags-surge-in-racism-anti-muslim-violence-in-india.html","title":{"rendered":"Hotmail founder flags surge in racism, anti-Muslim violence in India"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"New Delhi: Sabeer Bhatia, the Indian-origin co-founder of global email service Hotmail, has written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing grave concern over growing racism and identity-based violence in India, particularly targeting Muslims, Dalits, Christians and people from the North-East.<\/p>\n

According to Kashmir Media Service, the Hotmail founder highlighted the killing of 24-year-old Anjel Chakma, an MBA student from Tripura, who was reportedly murdered in Dehradun following a racially motivated altercation. Describing the incident as \u201ca tragedy for India\u2019s soul,\u201d Bhatia said Chakma lost his life \u201csolely because he looked different.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the letter, Bhatia, who founded Hotmail and represented India globally for over three decades in the technology sector, said people from the North-East have long faced stereotyping and racism despite being \u201c100 per cent Indian in identity, history and sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stressed that Chakma\u2019s killing was not an isolated incident but a reflection of a deeper and dangerous social malaise. The Hotmail co-founder warned that recent months have seen a sharp rise in violence against minorities, including Muslims, Dalits and Christians, saying hate-driven attacks on any community amount to an assault on the very idea of India.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether the victim is from the North-East, a Dalit, a Muslim, a Christian or any other community, the message must be loud and clear: communal hatred is wrong, racism is wrong, and targeting people because of their identity must stop,\u201d Bhatia wrote.<\/p>\n

Emphasising India\u2019s diversity as its greatest strength, the Hotmail founder said the country\u2019s 1.4 billion people, with different languages, cultures and faiths, share a single national identity. He cautioned that if diversity becomes a trigger for violence, India risks losing its foundational values.<\/p>\n

Bhatia urged Prime Minister Modi to take concrete steps, including issuing a clear national statement condemning racism and communal violence, ensuring a transparent and time-bound investigation into Anjel Chakma\u2019s death, launching nationwide sensitisation programmes to counter inter-community hatred, and strengthening legal safeguards against hate crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo parent in India\u2014whether in Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala or Nagaland\u2014should fear for their child\u2019s life because of their identity,\u201d he said, adding that such fears have no place in a country aspiring to global leadership.<\/p>\n

Concluding his letter, the Hotmail co-founder said he could not remain silent as an Indian and a technologist who spent his life building tools to connect people, while society drifts away from compassion and unity.<\/p>\n

He expressed hope that under Modi\u2019s leadership, India would confront the crisis with \u201chonesty and courage,\u201d so that Anjel Chakma\u2019s death becomes a turning point for justice and social reform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  New Delhi: Sabeer Bhatia, the Indian-origin co-founder of global email service Hotmail, has written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing grave concern over growing racism and identity-based violence in India, particularly targeting Muslims, Dalits, Christians and people from the North-East. According to Kashmir Media Service, the Hotmail founder highlighted the killing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":191881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/01\/shabeer-batia-pti_vb_38.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191882,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191880\/revisions\/191882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}