Indian students take out rally in Oz against racial attacks

Natasha Chaku

Melbourne, May 31 (PTI) Outraged over the spate of racial
attacks in Australia, hundreds of Indian students Sunday took
out a massive rally here demanding justice for the victims of
recent assaults, including 25-year-old Shravan Kumar who is
battling for life in a local hospital.

The 'peace rally' organised by bodies like Federation of
Indian Students in Australia (FISA) and National Union of
Students kicked off from outside the Royal Melbourne Hospital,
where Kumar is in a critical condition in the intensive care
unit after being stabbed by a screwdriver by a group of teens
on Sunday last.

From the hospital, the marchers proceeded to the
Victorian Parliament in Spring Street, where they shouted
slogans like 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.

"We want justice for the victims of racist violence,"
demanded the students, who also displayed placards carrying
messages like 'Save our Students' and 'Stop Racist Violence'.

Police were present in strength to maintain law and order
as the rally led to traffic diversion at the Spring Street,
which was completely blocked by the demonstrators who hoped to
meet the Victorian Parliamentarians to put forward their
demands.

Reacting to the students' rally, Indian Consul General in
Melbourne, Anita Nayar, described it as freedom of expression.

"Australia is a democratic country and it (this rally) is
freedom of expression," she told PTI. However, she hoped that
that event remained peaceful and did not turn ugly.

Television footage of Kumar fighting for life in the
hospital sent shock waves among the 95,000-strong Indian
student community in Australia, which is home to over 4 lakh
international students.

FISA had said yesterday that the rally was being
organised in response to the growing anger in the Indian
community against increasing hate crimes.

"The purpose is to create an awareness about an
increasing number of hate crimes within the state (of
Victoria) and to promote racial harmony and peace," FISA had
said in a statement.

Another Indian student, Baljinder Singh, stabbed by two
attackers recently, has been discharged from hospital while
Rajesh Kumar, who suffered 30 per cent burns after a
petrol bomb was hurled at him in his home, was being treated
in a Sydney hospital.

Insisting that Australia is not a racist country, John
McCarthy, its High Commissioner in New Delhi, said "we should
cooperate to ensure that incidents of atrocities don't occur."

"We should ensure Indian students are well-informed about
Australia which is generally a very safe country. We are proud
of our record as a multi-cultural country," he told NDTV.

"We abhor racism and we are going to maintain a policy to
make sure that Melbourne and other cities remain safe for all
foreign students," McCarthy said, adding additional police
had been deployed to protest the areas in question.

He said the Australian government was determined to
ensure that such incidents did not take place again.

"Any country in the world has an amount of racism. We
think, however, that our record is a good one. we have about
200 different nationalities in Australia. To be a tolerant
country, to be able to handle different races, that's what we
are about. But like anywhere in the world we have to manage
racism - we have laws against it," McCarthy said. PTI PMR
RKM