Preneet Kaur: Govt conveying “displeasure and concern” over attacks on Indians in Australia

Speaking on the sidelines of the India-Iceland Renewable Energy Workshop, Preneet Kaur - Minister of State for foreign affairs - said that the government was making the best possible efforts to convey its "absolute displeasure and concern" to the Australian government after the recent spate of violent incidents against Indians residing in Australia.

Saying that the government was monitoring the situation on a day-to-day basis, the Minister added that all the incidents of violence against Indians, including the most recent attack on a 24-year
-old Indian taxi driver and the incident of fire in a Melbourne gurudwara, were extremely regrettable.

She said: "We can only hope that Australia gets its act together like they are telling us and brings the perpetrators to book."

Meanwhile, amid protests in India over the supposedly racial attacks against Indian students, Australian High Commissioner Peter Varghese said on Friday that the Australian government would take strict action against those involved in attacks on Indians.

However, he also added that rather than arriving at hasty conclusions, the government will investigate the facts, and then "allow the criminal justice system to reach a view on the motives and the appropriate punishment."

Further elaborating on the details about the action that the Australian authorities have taken thus far, in cases pertaining to assaults on Indians, Varghese said that a total of 34 suspects had been arrested in Victoria alone.