By Murali Krishnan
Melbourne, June 25 (IANS) Premier John Brumby prides on people from 230 nations speaking 220 languages and dialects and following 116 faiths living in Australia’s Victoria state, but the attacks on Indian students in capital Melbourne over the last few weeks have left him a worried man.

“It is a pity that these incidents have happened and it is distressing. But I am determined to fix it. Waves of immigration from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Pacific has always made Victoria, and especially Melbourne, the most diverse and multicultural place in the world,” he told IANS.

There have been at least 16 such incidents, a majority happening in Victoria. It has sparked allegations of widespread racism in Australian society and a failure by law enforcement authorities to act, thus putting his government in a spot.

“We have acted in a few incidents and some teenagers have been arrested while some have been sent to juvenile homes because of their age. I agree that the attack on the Indian student on the train that was captured on camera was racially biased,” he said.

However, Brumby was quick to point out that most cases were not racial in nature and assailants were either looking for soft targets to rob or Indians seemed vulnerable.

Investigations are still on to arrest the perpetrators behind the attack on Indian student Sravan Kumar Theerthala, who faced up to party-crashers, one of whom stabbed him in the head with a screw driver May 24.

The attack left the 25-year-old student battling for life in a hospital and a month later he is still in rehab.

“The worst is over but we pray he comes out fine,” said Sravan’s relative.

Melbourne is the country’s second largest city with a population of just over 3 million and its cosmopolitan makeup has been attracting people from world over. In fact, a quarter of its population is born overseas and it claims itself as the third largest Greek city in the world and the largest Italian city outside Italy.

As part of Brumby’s measures to improve safety, especially for Indian students, many of whom live in the suburbs, additional patrols by uniformed police and the dog squad and air wing operations have been mounted in trouble spots in and around Sunshine, St.Albans, Thomas town and Clayton areas - all which have witnessed such incidents.

“It is wrong to say there is a preponderance of crime against Indians. There are many Indians who are well established and successful and some who are doing extremely well in universities,” he maintains.

In Brumby’s reckoning, the protest organised by the Federation of Indian Students Association (FISA) May 31 in the heart of the city was to send out a different message.

“The students wanted to tell the established order that they had different needs.”

The protest was organised in Federation Square, the central business district in which hundreds of protesters blocked one of Melbourne’s busiest intersections. The protest was later broken up by police and 18 people were arrested.

To reaffirm to the world and all communities living in Victoria, Brumby is now planning a Harmony Walk July 12.

“We must not let the actions of a very small minority undermine one of the very tenets of our state. We are a community built on understanding, we are all equal.”