Wau...hoosay...from their own horses mouth.
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</td></tr> <tr><td class="msgtxt">'Offensive' Indian students to blame for attacks: magnate<!-- Class 'push-0' just right-aligns the element so that the main content comes first. --> <!-- cT-storyDetails --> Chalpat Sonti
<cite>July 13, 2009 - 9:24AM</cite>
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Vikas Rambal Photo: Tony Ashby
One of Australia's most prominent Indian-born businessmen has launched an astonishing attack on bashed students from his homeland, claiming they provoked the assaults by being drunk and "making merry".
Vikas Rambal, a Perth-based fertiliser tycoon and major cricket sponsor, also said that Australians only ever attacked anyone they found "too offensive".
His comments have been slammed as "nonsense" by groups in Australia.
The attacks on Indian students, which have mainly occurred in Melbourne, have caused a huge public outcry in India and have seen assurances given by Kevin Rudd to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh that they were being properly investigated.
Mr Rambal, whose company Perdaman Industries plans to build a $3.5 billion urea plant in Collie, south of Perth, told students at his former university in the central Indian city of Nagpur on Thursday that Indian students had provoked the attacks on themselves.
"Who would want anything to do with a person who, although he has been sent to study, manages to earn a few hundred dollars driving taxis and spends them drinking or making merry in the worst possible ways," he said.
"The Australians never attack anyone unless they find the person too offensive," he said in comments reported by the Times of India, the country's largest-selling English-language newspaper.
Federation of Indian Students of Australia president Amit Meghani said Mr Rambal had no idea of the reality of life for an Indian student in this country.
"I'd like him to spend a couple of weeks as a student, living five people to a room, going to a university with no computers, and walk home late at night not carrying a mobile phone," Mr Meghani said.
"Then he can see how things work out."
Many Australians had backed the students' plight, "because safety is a big concern".
"(Mr Rambal) can see the statistics, because the statistics don't profile the criminal, they profile the victim, which is totally unacceptable," Mr Meghani said.
"Speaking in Hindi, is that provoking enough. Carrying a mobile phone for emergencies. Is that provoking enough. Carrying a laptop for educational purposes. Is that provoking enough.
"Other people are carrying laptops and mobile phones, but the police are telling only us not to do all these things," Mr Meghani said, in reference to advice given by Victorian police commissioner SImon Overland.
WA Ethnic Communities Council president Ramdas Sankaran, a Malaysian-born Indian, said Mr Rambal's comments were "nonsense".
"I really find it astonishing that someone would say that," he said.
"Given that Australian authorities themselves accept what has happened, why blame the victim. The realities are various minorities are being attacked."
Mr Rambal's comments seemed like "playing to the gallery", and talking up his Australian credentials, Mr Sankaran said.
"At the end of the day, people have different ways of demonstrating the way they fit into a society," he said.
Mr Rambal moved to WA from India in 2000, and was a substantial shareholder and managing director of Burrup Fertiliser, which built one of the world's largest ammonia plants on the Burrup Peninsula.
However, after a falling out in 2006 with major shareholder and fellow Perth-domiciled Indian businessman Pankaj Oswal - a saga which went to the WA Supreme Court - he left with a rumoured $350 million for his share of the company.
Mr Rambal was instrumental in bringing one of WA's favourite cricketing sons, Tom Moody, back to the state as coach in 2007.
Moody had a highly-successful stint in charge of Sri Lanka and WA was able to beat off bids from around the world.
When WA finished second in the domestic Twenty20 competition in 2007-08, qualifying for the lucrative international Champions League, the team was to be known as the Rambal Warriors for the duration of the competition, after Mr Rambal secured naming rights sponsorship.
However, the tournament was aborted following last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Last year, Mr Rambal was in talks to buy then-struggling Indian Premier League franchise Deccan Chargers for up to US$250 million, but he pulled out soon after.
The Adam Gilchrist-led Chargers went on to win this year's IPL in South Africa.
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="4" class="msgleft" width="1%">
</td><td class="wintiny" align="right" nowrap="nowrap">16884.1 </td></tr><tr><td height="8">
</td></tr> <tr><td class="msgtxt">'Offensive' Indian students to blame for attacks: magnate<!-- Class 'push-0' just right-aligns the element so that the main content comes first. --> <!-- cT-storyDetails --> Chalpat Sonti
<cite>July 13, 2009 - 9:24AM</cite>
<!--<BOD>--> <!-- cT-imagePortrait -->
One of Australia's most prominent Indian-born businessmen has launched an astonishing attack on bashed students from his homeland, claiming they provoked the assaults by being drunk and "making merry".
Vikas Rambal, a Perth-based fertiliser tycoon and major cricket sponsor, also said that Australians only ever attacked anyone they found "too offensive".
His comments have been slammed as "nonsense" by groups in Australia.
The attacks on Indian students, which have mainly occurred in Melbourne, have caused a huge public outcry in India and have seen assurances given by Kevin Rudd to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh that they were being properly investigated.
Mr Rambal, whose company Perdaman Industries plans to build a $3.5 billion urea plant in Collie, south of Perth, told students at his former university in the central Indian city of Nagpur on Thursday that Indian students had provoked the attacks on themselves.
"Who would want anything to do with a person who, although he has been sent to study, manages to earn a few hundred dollars driving taxis and spends them drinking or making merry in the worst possible ways," he said.
"The Australians never attack anyone unless they find the person too offensive," he said in comments reported by the Times of India, the country's largest-selling English-language newspaper.
Federation of Indian Students of Australia president Amit Meghani said Mr Rambal had no idea of the reality of life for an Indian student in this country.
"I'd like him to spend a couple of weeks as a student, living five people to a room, going to a university with no computers, and walk home late at night not carrying a mobile phone," Mr Meghani said.
"Then he can see how things work out."
Many Australians had backed the students' plight, "because safety is a big concern".
"(Mr Rambal) can see the statistics, because the statistics don't profile the criminal, they profile the victim, which is totally unacceptable," Mr Meghani said.
"Speaking in Hindi, is that provoking enough. Carrying a mobile phone for emergencies. Is that provoking enough. Carrying a laptop for educational purposes. Is that provoking enough.
"Other people are carrying laptops and mobile phones, but the police are telling only us not to do all these things," Mr Meghani said, in reference to advice given by Victorian police commissioner SImon Overland.
WA Ethnic Communities Council president Ramdas Sankaran, a Malaysian-born Indian, said Mr Rambal's comments were "nonsense".
"I really find it astonishing that someone would say that," he said.
"Given that Australian authorities themselves accept what has happened, why blame the victim. The realities are various minorities are being attacked."
Mr Rambal's comments seemed like "playing to the gallery", and talking up his Australian credentials, Mr Sankaran said.
"At the end of the day, people have different ways of demonstrating the way they fit into a society," he said.
Mr Rambal moved to WA from India in 2000, and was a substantial shareholder and managing director of Burrup Fertiliser, which built one of the world's largest ammonia plants on the Burrup Peninsula.
However, after a falling out in 2006 with major shareholder and fellow Perth-domiciled Indian businessman Pankaj Oswal - a saga which went to the WA Supreme Court - he left with a rumoured $350 million for his share of the company.
Mr Rambal was instrumental in bringing one of WA's favourite cricketing sons, Tom Moody, back to the state as coach in 2007.
Moody had a highly-successful stint in charge of Sri Lanka and WA was able to beat off bids from around the world.
When WA finished second in the domestic Twenty20 competition in 2007-08, qualifying for the lucrative international Champions League, the team was to be known as the Rambal Warriors for the duration of the competition, after Mr Rambal secured naming rights sponsorship.
However, the tournament was aborted following last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Last year, Mr Rambal was in talks to buy then-struggling Indian Premier League franchise Deccan Chargers for up to US$250 million, but he pulled out soon after.
The Adam Gilchrist-led Chargers went on to win this year's IPL in South Africa.
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