NEW DELHI: Refuting allegations that the government did not take adequate steps regarding the attack on Nigerian nationals in Greater Noida, Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said that all such attacks can’t be termed racial.
The minister made the statement in Lok Sabha on Wednesday on recent attacks on African national in the country. She also took strong objection to African heads of Mission’s remark that India’s response was inadequate on the attacks on Africans.
Sushma Swaraj reiterated that all attacks on Africans in India or on Indians in the United States cannot be called xenophobic and racial in nature. “Racial crimes are pre-planned, which was not the case with the recent attack on the African students by a mob in Greater Noida,” she said asserting that the government is committed to their safety.
“It’s not right to connect with racism before probe ends. I said this in the context of attacks in the US too,” said Sushma Swaraj in Lok Sabha. Calling the statement of Africans envoys unfortunate, painful and surprising, Sushma Swaraj said, “You can’t say our steps are inadequate. We are committed to ensuring the security of all foreigners in India.”
The minister also informed that the African group head of the missions, who had issued a strongly-worded statement, was called by her ministry on Wednesday and conveyed the government's response. She said that her deputy in the ministry V K Singh spoke to him about the prompt response she took as well as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and told him that the African missions could have sought a meeting with the Prime Minister if they were still not satisfied.
Sushma Swaraj’s response came days after the attack on four Nigerian students in Greater Noida, some 40 km from the Indian capital, following protests over the death of a Class 12 student of a residential colony there due to a drug overdose. Some people who were holding a candle-light vigil for the student attacked the Nigerians suspecting them of drug-running.
In her statement in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj also gave details of the incident saying a youth in Greater Noida had died and his parents had blamed ‘drug overdose’ for this. Locals took out a candle march, during which an uncontrolled mob of criminals who had infiltrated the crowd attacked the African students, she said.
The external affair minister also mentioned the name of her deputy in the ministry, M J Akbar saying he kept in touch with African missions and told them that the PM was personally monitoring the situation.