Nirupama Rao to take up Tri-Valley University travails
The foreign secretary will take up the issue of Indian students who are facing problems in USA due to the closing down of Tri-Valley University during her visit to Washington next week.
Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao will take up the issue of Indian students who are facing problems in USA due to the closing down of Tri-Valley University during her visit to Washington next week.
Foreign minister SM Krishna has asked Rao take up the matter, including the cry over radio-tagging of the students, at the highest level of the US government. “We will be taking it up with the US authorities as how it allowed such dubious university to function and how it was allowed to dupe gullible students,” Krishna said.
However, the government tried to downplay the issue of radio-tagging of Indian students fearing too much criticism may lead to the arrest of students. “The alternative is to remove radio collars and put them in jail. Then they will have to pay huge amounts in bail,” a source said.
Even Krishna toned down his criticism saying that the issue should be understood from the larger perspective that over 1.8 lakh Indians are studying in US and the matter of radio-tagging relates to only a handful.
“We have already taken it up with the US at the highest level. Our ambassador and the consul-general in San Francisco are in touch with the students. But let us understand one thing. There are about 1.8 lakh Indian students in the US and we are now talking about these 12 or 18 students who have been subjected to this treatment. I would appeal to the people of the country and to the media in particular that we should look at it in the larger perspective that there are over one lakh Indian students who are pursuing their studies in various universities,” Krishna said.
Meanwhile, human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said that while the government is concerned for the Indian students, it can not do much in terms of relocating them in other universities, including the ones in India.
Rao will reach Washington on February 11 to take forward US president Barack Obama’s assurance to help India secure full membership in the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group. Her visit is to prepare ground for strategic dialogue between Krishna and US secretary of states Hillary Clinton during her trip to India in April.