India needs to show restraint in reacting to Oz attacks: Tharoor

Holding that attacks on Indian students in Australia were not part of an organised racial movement, minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor today said that it was necessary for India to maintain restraint in its reaction to such incidents.

Some racial elements might be behind the attacks and they might be considered opportunistic crimes, he said here.

To a query, he said India needed to maintain restraint in its reactions to the attacks in Australia and also in Canada. There were two lakh Indian emigrants and 90,000 students in Australia and any over-reaction might lead to further complications, Tharoor said while noting that 20 Australians were killed in India during past five years.

He said the country had made best diplomatic efforts to protect Indians abroad, adding that there were no political differences with Australia and Canada.

Australia was very keen to solve the issue amicably as its education business was worth USD 1.5 billion, he said.

According to him, it was not necessary to send a delegation to Australia in the light of the attacks as officials at the Indian missions in Australia and Canada were quite competent to deal with the issue. It would be undiplomatic to send a delegation to another sovereign nation, he said.