Indian attacked in Germany for 'taking away jobs'

BERLIN, AUG. 6. In the ongoing anti-foreign wave in Germany, an Indian national has been severely assaulted in an eastern town of the country this week. Police said five assailants aged between 17 and 21 thrashed the 31-year-old Indian, whose name has been withheld, in a regional train and hurled abuses at him.

One of the remarks by the assailants was ``get out of here. You are taking away our jobs''. The five youth have been detained on charges of causing physical injuries and further investigations are on.

The shocking incident occurred in the industrial town of Leipzig in Saxony in Eastern Germany where two Indian executives were among the first few foreign computer experts who got green cards as part of a new scheme launched by the German Government on August 1.

Ironically the two incidents occurred on the same day.

Mr. Rajagopalan Venkatesh and Mr. Karan Singh, managers of the German arm of the Larsen and Toubro Group, received the `work permit guarantees' on behalf of Ms. Ritu Gupta and Mr. Milan Krishna Mithboakar from the assistant director of the Leipzig employment office - Wolfgang Rohwerder.

This is second such incident in Leipzig after a gap of two months. An Indian researcher on a short-term visa was badly beaten up and dogs let loose on him while he emerged from a telephone booth in June. The renewed wave of anti-foreigner violence in the past few months has caused concern in Germany with political and business leaders warning that it would discourage computer experts from moving to Germany and undermine the Chancellor, Mr. Schroeder's ambitious green card initiative.

Mr. Schroeder has warned that Germany's image would be tarnished abroad because of the attacks on foreigners, which some analysts have described as resurgence of xenophobia in Germany. Xenophobia was at its peak in 1992. There have been at least 28 attacks against foreigners this year here and four deaths recorded in incidents that included repeated beatings and attempted firebombings of synagogues.

Ultra-rightist groups and neo-nazis have been blamed for these incidents.

German companies are also worried that the extremist violence could scare off potential investors.

- PTI

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