3 February 2010
Transcript of Interview with NDTV (Vikram Chandra) for the Nine pm News
Question: Inaudible
High Commissioner: .......I think the outcome to date of that and we all have to be very careful to recognise that this is a case that will be before our courts and we should not make any assumptions about anyone’s guilt or innocence. We should allow the processes to work their way through and then come to conclusions. But I think these have been very high-profile cases, both this and the murder of the young Indian man in Griffith, whose burnt body was found on the side of the road -- there again presented as a racist attack. The three persons who are currently facing charges in that attack are Indian nationals and of course it is quite clear, at least on the basis of police investigations that that particular incident was not motivated by any racial factors. So, I think we all need to be very careful about jumping to conclusions based on initial reports which can often prove to be wrong.
Question: Do you thing the media needs to be careful about …too much hysteria....?
High Commissioner: My point applies to everyone. It does not just apply to the media. It applies to anyone making comments on these cases or anyone purporting to know the circumstances of these cases. It is a general counsel to everyone to allow the processes of investigation, the processes of judicial justice to run their course. And if we find that these attacks are motivated by race, we have a system for dealing with that. We have legislation that enables us to impose tougher penalties for hate crime and our system of justice will deliver on that.
Question: …there may be two cases or five cases which may have been done by Indian nationals, or in this case it just seems to be an outright scam. But will it be fair to say that a majority of the crime may well have been committed for reasons of racism or may be hate crimes…will that be a fair statement to make?
High Commissioner: The point I have been making is that most of these crimes are urban crimes. Some of these crimes are racially motivated crimes and obviously the latter are particularly reprehensible and completely condemned. That remains my view.
Question:…most of these are urban crimes…?
High Commissioner: I think it is important to be careful here not only to allow investigations to run their course but also not to assume that any time something bad happens to an Indian national, that is automatically an act of racism because it may well prove to be something quite different.
Question: Are you concerned that all these events that are taking place over the last few months are now reaching a position where there could be a damage in India-Australia relations…I am sure you are in regular touch with the Indian government…
High Commissioner: These reports, the occurence of these attacks, the coverage of these attacks, they have made a big dent in Australia’s image in India. As the Australian High Commissioner here in India, that does worry me, it does concern me. I want to try and do what I can make sure firstly that these issues are being addressed and addressed seriously by the Australian government, which I think, is the case. Secondly, to also ensure that the very sound bilateral relationship we have at the government-to-government level can continue. To the extent possible, to separate the two, we do not see a (inaudible) effect on our bilateral relationship.
Question: Is there anything else that you think needs to be done within Australia…(inaudible)?
High Commissioner: We are taking several steps and we will keep those steps under review to see whether there is even more that we can do. This is primarily a law and order issue and we have increased the policing resources, the law and order resources. We have changed our legislation to give our police greater powers to search for weapons, to move on unruly people. We have set up a special very high level task force between the Commonwealth government and the Victorian government to make sure that we have consistent follow through on the steps that we are taking. This is an issue which the Australian government is seized of at the highest levels, from the Prime Minister down. The Prime Minister has set up a task force chaired by our National Security Advisor to address all of these issues. I think it is important to recognise that the Australian government does take this seriously. We have already had more than 50 arrests in relation to attacks against Indian nationals, those cases will work their way through our courts system. Our courts have already shown that they are prepared to impose appropriately tough sentences for this sort of criminal activity. In one case, up to 18 years imprisonment for a particularly vicious attack against someone of Indian origin. So, we take it seriously, we are doing things to try and address this issue, to manage the issue and to try and ensure that we provide a safe environment not only to Indian students, but indeed to all of the 600,000 or so foreign students that we have in Australia.
Journalist: Thank you High Commissioner for joining us with that perspective.