Video footage showing the electrocution of a man traveling on the roof of a crowded train in India was circulating in the Victoria state police computer system, Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper reported. It said comments were added suggesting “this might be a way to fix the Indian student problem.”
This is the latest diplomatic incident between India and Australia since a series of attacks on Indian students in Australia that began in 2008, prompting New Delhi to lodge repeated protests with Canberra.
The attacks, including the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old Indian graduate last January, had strained ties with India and hurt Australia’s lucrative foreign student market, its third largest export earner, worth $13 billion Australian dollars ($12 billion) in 2007-08.
Australian High Commissioner (ambassador) Peter Varghese was called in by the Indian foreign ministry and handed a formal protest, a ministry statement said.
“It was conveyed to him that such an entrenched bias among sections of law enforcers toward the Indian community is a matter of serious concern,” a ministry statement said.
“Such behavior and attitudes have no place in any society,” it said, hoping that Australian authorities would take measures to ensure the safety of people of Indian origin.
The statement said Varghese said his government condemned the incident.
Earlier this week, India summoned New Zealand’s high commissioner to protest against what it said were “racial remarks” made in a television show in that country against the chief minister of the Indian capital, New Delhi.
