BY IANS,
New Delhi: Stepping up pressure on Australia in the wake of continuing attacks on Indian students, India Thursday asked Canberra to take “urgent action” while it stressed the “need for calm and balance”.
Questioning the choice of Australia as an education destination by Indian students, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Thursday asked Canberra to ensure that Indian citizens are safe in that country and rebuffed Australia’s claims of “hysteria” in India.
Krishna met Australian High Commissioner Peter Varghese to voice India’s serious concerns and emphasised the need for prompt remedial action, the external affairs ministry said here.
“It is a matter of concern that, in spite of serious and concerted efforts by the Australian government to deal with this issue to address our concerns, these attacks are continuing, and have even resulted in fatalities,” the ministry said.
India’s High Commissioner to Australia Sujatha Singh and Consul General in Melbourne Anita Nair Thursday met the Acting Premier of Victoria, Rob Hulls, and the Deputy Commissioner of the Victoria Police to impress upon them the need for urgent action.
“They were assured that the Victoria government was making all efforts to apprehend the culprits and bring them to justice,” the ministry said.
After the Australian authorities reportedly accused India of whipping hysteria over the issue of attacks, subsequently denied by the Australian envoy here, New Delhi said “there was need for calm and balance, to let the concerned authorities in Australia take remedial measures to ensure there are no further incidents of this nature.”
The body of Nitin Garg, an Indian student who was knifed in West Footscray suburb of Melbourne Saturday night, is expected to arrive Saturday afternoon. The Indian government has assured financial assistance to the family of the deceased.
India has also formally asked the Australian government for complete statistics regarding the number of attacks as also the statistical break-down.
New Delhi also impressed upon Canberra to increase policing and surveillance in crime-prone areas, until such time as the attacks cease, and the Indian community in Australia is reassured about its safety and security.
With growing outrage in India over the attacks, Krishna Thursday advised Indian students to not to go to that country to pursue frivolous courses.
“I had my own doubts about Indian students going to Australia to pursue higher studies. I can understand if it is at the level of IITs or other such institutes of excellence,” Krishna told reporters when asked about the recent killings of Indian students in that country.
“I was shocked to see students had gone to study there in courses that they don’t need to go for, like hairstyling,” he said.
“There are any number of excellent institutes in India – in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. I would suggest to parents that they should be discreet in choosing higher eduction institutions for their children,” he said.
Krishna dismissed Australia’s contention that the Indian reaction over the issue of attacks was “hysterical,” and asked Canberra to step up security measures to ensure the security of Indian students.
“None of us needs to be hysterical but all that we expect is that Indian’s, whether they are students or otherwise, should be safe in the countries to which they go for pursuing their higher studies,” he said.
There were an estimated 115,000 Indian students in Australia in 2009, the highest number after the Chinese.
The envoy underlined that it was “a high priority” for the Victoria police to track the killers of Nitin Garg, an Indian student who was stabbed to death in Melbourne last week.
Varghese added that mobile information vans were deployed by the Victorian police in the vicinity of the scene of crime to catch the culprits.