Just when the government seemed to have succeeded in pacifying angry African envoys by persuading them to attend the government’s Africa Day celebrations on Thursday following the murder of a Congoles
Just when the government seemed to have succeeded in pacifying angry African envoys by persuading them to attend the government’s Africa Day celebrations on Thursday following the murder of a Congolese student in Delhi last week, Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma Friday once again set the cat among the pigeons and put the government in a spot by saying Africa too was unsafe. The minister’s comment now is bound to further result in infuriating the Africans at a time, at a time when V-P Hamid Ansari is to visit North Africa and PM Modi too is likely to visit southern Africa in the coming months. Mr Sharma had attracted controversy in the past as well for some of his previous utterances.
Terming the killing of a Congolese national unfortunate, Mr Sharma said that even African countries are not safe. “India is a large country and such incidents will give a bad name to India. It is an unfortunate incident. However, even Africa is not safe,” Mr Sharma was quoted by IANS as saying, adding, “Such incidents happen in other parts of the world too.” He said he had to cut down his walks during a visit to South Africa because of safety concerns, and said that it is unfair to paint India as an unsafe country. “When I went to South Africa, I was stopped from going for a morning walk at 6 am by the hotel people citing security reasons. My post-dinner walk was also dropped for the same reasons. It’s not fair to say that India is unsafe,” he said.
Sharma added that the tourism ministry has introduced measures to ensure safety of foreign nationals in the country. “The tourism ministry has introduced a helpline no 1363 for foreign nationals who visit India. We also issue certain do’s and don’ts for them here,” said the minister.
The African envoys had earlier this week threatened to ask their Governments to stop sending new students to India if the Indian Government did not take steps to prevent attacks on Africans in the country. While the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had assured stringent action and trial of the case by a Fast Track Court, the MEA had also said “all criminal acts should not be seen as racially-motivated”.
