Indians protest against alleged racist attacks on Indians in Melbourne. (AFP image)
As Australian authorities face flak over a series of attacks on Indian students, leading members of the community spoke out against branding the country as "racist" and said the government should be given some time to resolve the problem.
At the same time, they expressed their deep concern over the security issues of Indian students.
Insisting that Australia was not a "racist" country and all attacks were not racist in nature, Sydney-based cardiologist Yadu Singh said "We believe that this is not the correct picture of the unfortunate events."
"Most of the attacks are what we call 'opportunistic attacks' and due to the impression by the criminal elements about our students being the easy target for various reasons," Singh said.
Indian-origin CEO of leading company Primus, Ravi Bhatia, who took part in a peace rally here, said "Australia is a very open and tolerant society. It is a fun-loving country.
"There are many examples of highly successful members in the Indian community. Just like any other society, there are small minority of miscreants and malcontents," he said.
"Voice of Indian students have been heard at the highest level of the country. I would request them to give government time to address grievances," Bhatia said.
The students have gained enough attention and goodwill of Australian society and now they should give time to the institutions to come up with a solution, Bhatia said adding, otherwise they will lose what they have gained.
In the backdrop of outrage over racist attacks in Australia, community members are concerned that no wrong message should be sent while registering protests.
"The Indian community is well-settled in Australia and we have spoken with a large number of them. Some of them have been here for more than 25 years. We do not feel that we are facing a racism problem in Australia," Singh said.
"No doubt, our students have several significant issues and these issues have been raised with government and police authorities here. We are confident that these would be acted upon seriously. It must be accepted that Australia risks more than 15 billion dollars in business if the students' issues are not given due importance soon," he said.
T J Rao, former consul general for India, said, "I have never experienced any racist attacks here in last 40 years. The most vital issue is security of our students and that is what we are working on with Australian authorities."
Singh said there were issues that needed urgent attention including safety and security.
"Indian students in Australia are not reporting the incidents for various reasons. Police must increase its visibility and start undercover patrolling. Proactive measures need to be taken rather than the reactive ones. This is a work in progress," he said.
Singh also suggested that education or training providers must make an arrangement for accommodation for the initial six months. "They can charge reasonable fees for it. This should be a condition for the grant of the visa," he added.
Most of the attacks have taken place in faraway suburbs which are preferred by students due to availability of cheap accommodation.
Vasan Srinivasan of Federation of Indian Association of Victoria said, "I don't consider these to be racially motivated attacks, but there may be some (racist) elements attached to it."