Attacks on Africans not racial: Sushma

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 31

India today continued its efforts to contain the negative publicity spilling out from the recent attacks on the African community here. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, in her first public interaction since her illness, today met a delegation of African students and assured them of their safety.

She also made it a point to state that “all criminal acts should not be construed as racial attacks”.

The minister said the CCTV footage “clearly shows that Indian citizens who were present at spot, tried their best to save Masunda Oliver”. Oliver is the Congolese national who was killed in the capital recently.

The government has come under increasing pressure to control these attacks against the African community here at a time when India is looking to engage with the African continent on the global stage.

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Vice-President Hamid Ansari is currently on a visit to Morocco in India’s first high-level visits to the continent. Swaraj, after her meeting with the delegation of African students, also outlined the government’s approach in dealing with the situation. She said soon after the incident came to light, the Ministry of External Affairs reached out to the African diplomatic community and the African student community.

A sensitisation campaign will be carried out, according to the press release issued by the MEA. Swaraj also referred to India being the land of Buddha and Gandhi.