Aussie Claims of Security to Indian Students – No Fair Dinkum!
Akbar Khan
Despite the highest level of assurances issued to Indian students and authorities by Canberra, Mohit Mangal, an Indore lad studying engineering in Sydney, was on Saturday mugged by four unidentified attackers who smashed a beer bottle on his head before injuring his waist and leg with a baseball bat.
Mangal, the latest victim of racial violence targeting Indian students down-under, was on his way to work at the time of the incident. He moonlights as a shift supervisor at a seven-to-eleven outlet.
His condition is reported to be stable, but the psychological scars left by the attack will take time to heal, that is, if they do, at all.
Mohit is the fourth Indian to be targeted since External Affairs Minister SM Krishna reached Australia to express New Delhi’s concerns over recent violence against Indian students studying there.
Indians constitute the largest foreign contingent at Australian campuses, and security fears in the community have invited the highest level of interventions from the Australian government, which has stressed that all was being done to secure the community against racial attacks.
With considerable media attention, the attacks triggered a series of protests in India, a country where family ties are definitely thicker than the curry on the table, or even diplomatic or cricketing ties for that matter, Now, may be the last chance for the Australian government to act against the attackers failing which its billion dollar education industry may miss a piece of the Indian pie.
We invite you to express your views on the incident and the emerging situation.
