For the first time, a top Australian police officer admitted on Wednesday that some of the attacks on Indians may be racist.
For the first time, a top Australian police officer admitted on Wednesday that some of the attacks on Indians may be racist.
As news came in of a fresh attack on an Indian taxi driver in Melbourne, Victoria police commissioner Simon Overland said,
“There is no question, regardless of the motives, Indian students have to a degree been targeted in robberies and that is not okay.”
The online edition of The Australian quoted Overland as saying, “We recognised this problem a long time before it hit the public. We have known for two years that there has been this issue and we have been working away at a number of levels around engaging with students, trying to make them understand the risks and how they can keep themselves safe.”
He said, “I have said from day one (that) undoubtedly some of these attacks have a racist motive or there are racist elements to these attacks. Regardless of who they are, what they are, what colour they are, what occupation they are, my job is to make the state as safe as I can for everyone.”
Australia’s former military chief too has characterised the recent attacks on Indian students as racially motivated, rejecting Canberra’s official line that the violence has been purely criminal rather than racist.
“If you didn’t suspect a racial strand you’d be mad,” former general Peter Cosgrove told The Age on Tuesday after delivering a speech on race relations.
In New Delhi, external affairs minister SM Krishna said he has told Indian high commissioner in Canberra Sujatha Singh to provide a detailed report on the latest incident.
Despite excellent ties with Canberra, New Delhi is getting increasingly impatient with it for being unable to stop the assaults, which anger the people of India and sullies the government’s image at home. If Canberra cannot provide security, New Delhi may have to take the extreme step of telling students not to travel to Australia.
Krishna said he was “deeply anguished by the attacks”, adding that they have taken up the attacks with the Australian government again.
The taxi driver, a 25-year-old, was assaulted by two passengers on Saturday. He told the police he called an ambulance and was treated for facial injuries at the Northern Hospital after the late night assault. He had stopped at the Summerhill Hotel in Reservoir, where five people asked for a ride. But as his taxi could not carry all of them, he took only two people.
The police said the woman got angry and the man punched the driver as he pulled over on Plenty Road and continued to assault him as the couple climbed out of the cab.
—With inputs from Agencies
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