Ex-Army Chief of Oz Says Attacks on Indians Are Racially Motivated

Disagreeing with Canberra’s official line about attacks on Indians, a former Defence Force chief of Australia has said that the nature of attacks made it easy to conclude that they were racially motivated and asked his country’s government to confront racism, said reports.

While talking to ‘The Age’ after his address on Australia day, General Peter Cosgrove said that the number of incidents against Indians seemed ‘too many to be coincidences’.

“Attacks recently by groups of people on individuals looks like a profiling approach to people from the sub-continent,” he was quoted as saying.

“Rather than say ‘nothing to worry about’, I’d rather look more closely. If you didn’t suspect a racial strand you’d be mad,” he said.

Cosgrove opined that there was ongoing rift between the broader society and elements of the Muslim community, said reports.

Reports said that his comments in his Australia Day address titled ‘Sunshine and Shade’ deal more openly and directly with race issues than many political figures have been willing to do.

His speech also laid stress on country’s history of tolerance and positive attitudes to immigrants, said reports.

A former Australian of the Year, General Cosgrove said that the issue of attacks on Indians in the country had been there for some time, but ‘has erupted over the last several weeks to become a major problem’.

“I sense in relation to the spate of attacks on largely Indian people, in Melbourne and elsewhere, Australians are very concerned and disinclined to downplay, much less dismiss, the potential ‘racist’ elements in what is becoming a litany of criminality,” he was quoted as saying.

(Based on internet report)