Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has condemned as "senseless actsof violence" a series of race attacks on Indian students in Melbourne. The Indian high commissioner is demanding greater protection forIndians studying in Australia, as state authorities in the southernstate of Victoria draw up new laws to crack down on hate crimes.
Aseries of assaults on Indian students in Australia prompted about 3,000people to take part in a recent rally in Melbourne to demand greaterprotection from the authorities, who are accused of doing too little tostem the violence.
There were ugly clashes between protesters and police. More than a dozen people were arrested.
IndianHigh Commissioner to Australia Sujatha Singh says many youngexpatriates are furious that their concerns have not been properlyaddressed.
"Our Indian communities overseas are law abiding.They go by the rules and, if they're being provoked into this[protests], it is because they have very real concerns," said Singh.
Inthe past year, about 70 attacks on young Indians in Melbourne have beenreported and there are claims by community groups that the vastmajority have been racially motivated.
The latest victim of theviolence - a 25-year-old Indian student - is in a critical conditionafter being stabbed with a screwdriver by intruders at a birthday party.
His friend, Srinivas Vedantam, insists the attack was carried out by racist thugs.
"Whenthey entered the party and they started abusing - using the racialabuses, like 'You black Indians,' like that stuff. So it ended up witha racial attack," said Vedantam.
However, senior police officersdoubt that the violence directed toward the Indian community inAustralia is exclusively motivated by racial prejudice.
VictoriaPolice Chief Simon Overland insists that students, in general, havebecome "easy targets" for opportunistic criminals.
"It'spartly violence against Indian students," he said. "It's escalatingrobberies and we have used the term 'soft-target robberies.' Now, theIndian students have taken that as referring directly to them; it'snot. What we have seen is that robberies are now happening moredirected against people in the street, directed against people who arewandering around with laptop computers, mobile phones, iPods, cash. And, if they're alone, they're vulnerable."
The attacks have caused diplomatic friction between Canberra and New Delhi.
PrimeMinister Kevin Rudd has publicly reassured the Indian government thatAustralia is not a racist country and says he was appalled by theassaults.
"These are senseless acts of violence. Those who carry out these attacks stand condemned," he said.
In response, the Rudd government has set up a special task force to deal with the violence.
Thenew unit will be lead by a former chief of Australia's Special Forces,Duncan Lewis, who is one of the government's most-senior nationalsecurity advisers.
Officials in Victoria also want those convicted of racially-motivated offenses to be given more severe punishments.
Victoria Attorney General Rob Hulls says judges should take bigotry into account when passing sentence.
"Wewant to send a message that any crime that's committed purely based onhatred or prejudice against a group of people is not to be tolerated,but it ought be something that is taken into account in the sentencingprinciples in this state," he said.
But some Indian students, like Jayasanker Bagiepalli, are too fearful to remain in Australia and are heading home.
"Seewhat happens here? We are being attacked. Not once, twice. Manypeople, many Indians are being attacked. That's what happens here. Soif this country, you know, people from India really stops cominghere. My parents doesn't (sic) want me to stay here," said Bagiepalli,
About 90,000 Indian students are living in Australia. They generate millions of dollars for the national economy, each year.
The Australian wave of violence has made headline news across India.
Bollywoodlegend Amitabh Bachchan has rejected an honorary doctorate from auniversity in Queensland to protest the assaults on Indian students inAustralia.