The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : Continuing attacks

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Tuesday, Jun 16, 2009
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Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Continuing attacks

It is distressing to note that the attacks against Indian students in Australia are continuing unabated and are spreading to other parts of the country and Canada. We claim that the human race is progressing in all spheres. But of what use is progress if people’s minds are poisoned with hatred towards fellow beings on the basis of race, religion, language, culture, etc.?

R. Madhavan,

Salem

The attacks on Indian students in Australia are indeed unfortunate. Routine appeals will not solve the problem of racism. The government should derecognise all Australian universities and colleges, and should not allow any of them to recruit students from India. It should appeal to all Indian students in Australia to wind up and get back. They may incur financial losses in the process but it is better than suffering physical injury.

C. Dayakar,

Visakhapatnam

Many of us believe that foreign education is superior. But we have educational institutions which are comparable with any good foreign institution. I think we should take a collective decision of not visiting foreign countries, which make huge money out of us, for higher studies.

C. Anil Kumar,

Kalpakkam

While serious Indian students come to reputable Australian institutions, some join shady “shop front” educational institutions so that they can spend a few years in Australia and apply for residency. The Australian government has not regulated these institutes because of the billions of dollars the students bring in. While recognised institutes have safe residential campuses, the others don’t. Students studying in them live in communes and work long hours in service stations, restaurants, and retail stores. When mugged, they do not go to the police because they feel it will harm their chances of permanent residence. The police too are not keen on recording FIRs as they don’t want to show escalating crime statistics.

While Australia has woken up to arrest the international damage to its reputation, India too should take a firm stand in seeking assurance of student safety.

Dilip Mahanty,

Sydney

Perhaps the young, unemployed Australian youth see Indians as a threat to their chances of getting even unskilled work. There is an anti-discrimination law in Australia and the government and enlightened people will oppose any type of ill-treatment of the vulnerable but they cannot legislate to change the attitudes of people. Nor can they provide personal security to 90,000 Indian students.

Rosalind David,

Puducherry

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