Sibal urges Victoria against being complacent over lull in attacks on Indian student

MELBOURNE - Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal has said the Victoria Government should not become complacent due to recent lull in the attacks on Indian students in the state.

Visiting Melbourne for talks with Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Sibal said: “Though the incidents have been on the decline, they still continue to happen, and this is a matter of deep, deep concern to us. We do not have the benefit of the data, and we would expect the state government to actually share that data with us.”

“We don’t know, for example, what are the kinds of charges that have been framed. We don’t know what is the state of the prosecution - we don’t even know the names of the victims in many instances,” The Age quoted Sibal, as saying.

Sibal further said that more research was needed to compile a official data on the nature of the violence.

“The fact that data is not being collected, or researched and supplied, is also worrisome. At the state level, if that’s not being supplied, then that means the issue is not being fully addressed, as it should be,” he added.

He also praised steps to clamp down on fraudulent education institutions in recent months, but said Australia must do more to confront the causes of violence directed at Indians.

“It’s one thing to have an institutional restructuring to deal with the students who come here. It’s another thing to really look at the genesis of the malaise. On the regulatory side, enough is being done,”

“Whether there is enough introspection as to what is the cause of the malaise, I’m not too sure … I’d like to see that happen, for really in-depth study as to why Indian students have been targeted,” he added. (ANI)