New York: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday assured External Affairs Minister SM Krishna that the issue of Indian students enrolled in the now closed Tri Valley University (TVU) would receive her promptest attention and that "justice" would be done.
Clinton gave the assurance in the matter during a 40-minute telephonic conversation with the visiting Indian minister, a high-level Indian source said. The issue of the allegedly tainted TVU is understood to have figured prominently in Krishna's conversation during when Clinton agreed to personally intervene in the matter.
Clinton has asked Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar to meet her on Monday and provide all details, the source said, adding this will be followed up with her meeting with Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on Tuesday.
"She (Clinton) has ensured that justice will be done to the Indian students," told the source.
According to a federal complaint filed in a California court in January, the University helped foreign nationals illegally acquire immigration status. The university is said to have 1,555 students. As many as 95 per cent of these students are Indian nationals, the complaint said. Most of the Indian students are from Andhra Pradaesh.
Krishna told Clinton that these students who came on legal visas stood to lose out academically and financially and they should be allowed time to find another university to transfer before being deported.
"Our guys have been cheated," is the sentiment Krishna put across to Clinton, according to sources.
Recently, 18 students in California were radio-tagged by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of their investigation against TVU. Ankle monitors send a radio frequency signal containing location and other information to a receiver. So far, two students have been de-tagged.
The Indian minister, according to sources, also said that the radio-tagging of students was unacceptable, and Clinton has assured him that within the next 15 days these radio-tags would be removed.
Clinton and Krishna also discussed her upcoming visit to New Delhi for the Indo-US strategic dialogue and also the recent events in Egypt.
Investigations by the ICE have found that while students were admitted to various residential and on-line courses of the university and on paper lived in California, but in reality they "illegally" worked in various parts of the country as far as Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Krishna met 30 of these students on Saturday. Many of them said they are stuck here without any concrete plan to get out of their dilemma and need help from the government.
Noting that the situation was very complex, Susmita Gongulee Thomas, the consul general of the Indian consulate in San Francisco said on Saturday the students of the TVU, were in for a "long haul".
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