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India: Anti-Racism Activists Arrested While Protesting at Australian High Commission

Report from www.cpiml.org
Activists of the All India Students' Association (AISA) were arrested for organising a protest demonstration at the Australian High Commission on 12 January against the recent spate of racist attacks on Indian students and workers in Australia.

In the past two weeks, racist attacks on Indians in Australia have claimed two lives (Ranjodh Singh and Nitin Garg) while 29-year old Jaspreet Singh is now recovering from burns to 15 per cent of his body on his hands, face and legs.

The protesters were arrested as soon as they began raising slogans outside the High Commission, demanding that the Australian Government stop denying the racist overtones in the series of attacks. Protesters also condemned India’s Minister for External Affairs, S M Krishna, for toeing the Australian Government's line of denying that the spate of attacks reflected racism.

The arrest made it clear that the Indian Government is willing to suppress even a peaceful, democratic students' protest in order to keep the Australian HC in India from facing the slightest heat of the outrage
against the attacks.

The students were detained for several hours at the Chanakyapuri Police Station. Students from DU, Jamia and JNU gathered outside the station and continued with the protest.

Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP), formerly ASIET (Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor), is a network of solidarity activists campaigning for democratic rights, self-determination and other justice struggles in the Asia Pacific region.
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