The Australian Alumni Association is an umbrella organisation in India representing Indians who studied in Australia.
The recent attacks on the Indian students studying in Australia could be the acts of petty criminals, drug addicts, or junkies who look out for soft targets to attack, said the president of the Australian Alumni Association, Rishi Singla. “We must not think of Australia as a bad country or a racist country,” he added.
The Australian Alumni Association is an umbrella organisation in India representing Indians who studied in Australia and includes all ex-students of Indian origin from the 38 Australian universities. This organisation has chapters in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai.
“Let us not conclude that Australia is a racist country or a country where outsiders are treated badly. We need to give time to the government to investigate the incidents,” he added. Singla said he could not recall a single instance of racial discrimination during his nine years in Australia.
Australia has been attracting a large number of Indian students and has around 75,000 Indian students, according to Australian Education International.
“With the number of Indian students increasing in Australia, several Australian universities are opening their branches in India to woo more students,” pointed out Singla.
Singla lived in Australia from 1998 to 2007 and returned to India as he had a family business to take care of. “Most Indian students prefer to take up permanent residence in Australia,” said Singla, adding that his two daughters were born in Australia. The cosmopolitan culture in Australia is what attracts most of the Indian students, he added.
Singla, who was the president of the Indian Students’ Association at Griffith University in Brisbane, with 500 Indian students as its members, said he had happy memories of Indian night events in which both Indian and Australian student participated.
“Hindi music, Indian cuisine and lots of sweets were eaten. Around 20% of the participants would be non-Indians,” he said.
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