THE AUSTRALIAN government has said the country is not racist, despite the Indian government issuing a travel warning following the murder of an Indian man in Melbourne at the weekend.
New Delhi’s ministry of external affairs issued the warning in response to the killing of Nitin Garg (21), who was stabbed to death last Saturday night as he walked to work. Mr Garg’s death followed a spate of attacks in Melbourne in the past eight months in which young Indians, often students, have been the victims.
Australia’s education trade with India is worth $2.3 billion (€1.46 billion) annually.
“The ministry of external affairs cautions Indian students who are planning to study in Australia that there have been several incidents of robbery and assault on Indians in Australia, particularly in Melbourne, which has seen an increase in violence on its streets in recent years,” the Indian government statement said.
“Increasingly also, the acts of violence . . . are often accompanied by verbal abuse, fuelled by alcohol and drugs.”
The statement urged Indian students to take extra security measures such as not travelling alone at night in Australia.
Deputy prime minister Julia Gillard says Australia will continue to welcome Indian students despite the warning.
“In big cities around the world we do see acts of violence from time to time; that happens in Melbourne, it happens in Mumbai, it happens in New York, it happens in London,” she said. “Any individual act of violence is obviously to be deeply regretted and our sympathies go to anyone who is harmed by an act of violence.”
A series of serious assaults on Indian students in May and June last year led to street protests in Melbourne.
Those attacks and last weekend’s murder are seen as a threat to Australia’s education trade with India.
On trips to India last year, prime minister Kevin Rudd sought to assure New Delhi that Indian students were safe in Australia.
Bubbly Johar, vice-president of the Association of Australian Education Representatives in India, said Mr Garg’s death had further damaged Australia’s reputation.
He said that if Australia did not act to stop the violence, the Indian student market would disappear.
“The market is absolutely doomed,” he told ABC radio. “Which parent will allow students to go to a country like this? The market is 90 per cent down in India and this will continue; it’s not going to stop.”
Mr Johar said whether or not Mr Garg’s killing was racially motivated was not the point. “We do agree that Australia is not a racist country,” he said, “but parents have lost their child. Whether it’s racist or not racist doesn’t bother anyone now . . . the most precious thing in your life is your child.”
In an unrelated incident, police in New South Wales yesterday identified a partially burnt body found beside a rural road as that of Indian national Ranjodh Singh.
Mr Singh (25) was visiting Griffith at the time of his death. A passerby found his body on December 29th.