Indian students take out peace rally in Australia against racist attacks

MELBOURNE - Hundreds of Indian students in Australia have embarked on a peace rally aimed at curbing racist violence. The march comes in response to a recent spate of violent attacks on Indian students.

More than 300 protesters left the Royal Melbourne Hospital on Sunday afternoon. They will march to Parliament house.

The Federation of Indian Students in conjunction with Melbourne University’s Graduate Student Association has organised the rally.

Graduate Student Association president Paul Coats called on the Australian Government to immediately implement policy aimed at curbing a growing culture of racial intolerance.

“I am opposed to calls for more police, as it appears that the police have been part of the problem… they blame Indian students for making themselves targets,” The Herald Sun quoted Coats, as saying.

“Rather than blaming the climate of racism in Australia and racist governments that exploit Indian international students through the commodification of education,” he said.

Australia has recently seen a series of attacks against Indian students, the most serious being the assault of Shravan Kumar, a 25-year-old student from Andhra Pradesh who is battling for life in a hospital after being stabbed by a screwdriver by a group of teens in a weekend attack that also left three of his friends injured.

On Sunday night, hospitality graduate Rajesh Kumar received 30 percent burns after a petrol bomb was flung into his home in Sydney that he shared with other Indians.

Yadu Singh, a cardiologist and community leader in Sydney, said there have been at least 20 incidents of “curry bashing” in his city in the past month but most attacks on Indian students went unreported out of fear. (ANI)