India 'doesn't think Aussies are racist' despite 2010 student attacks in Melbourne This photo taken on January 4, 2009 shows a placard at candle lit vigil in the western suburbs of Melbourne on January 4, 2010 where Indian student Nitin Garg was fatally stabbed on January 2, 2010. INDIA'S foreign minister says there's no perception of Australians as racists after the 2010 student attacks controversy. Diplomatic tensions were sparked in January that year when Indian student Nitin Garg was murdered in Melbourne. Speaking in Perth on Thursday, Indian foreign minister Salman Khurshid said there was no perception in his home country of Australians as racists. "Isolated incidents of this type happen," he said. There is always a context and people sometimes read dimensions that are not there at all. It creates a sense of disquiet and a worry. We can say safely we have put it behind us. There never was a real issue. It was an issue that in a sense had been blown out of proportion. The number of Indians coming to Australia to study has fallen in recent years, but Mr Khurshid's Australian counterpart Julie Bishop said the federal government was keen to keep it an attractive destination. "Our new Colombo plan, which will be a reverse of the original Colombo plan that brought students to Australia, will see Australian students going to India," she said. We believe that exchange - the friendships that will be built, the networks that will be created - will see more Indian students come to Australia. Mr Khurshid is in Perth for key talks at the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation meeting on Friday.