Indian PM not to attend Commonwealth summit in Australia

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not attend the forthcoming Commonwealth summit in Perth, Australia, because he has heavy diplomatic engagement, said a senior Indian official Tuesday. Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari will head to Australia to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), according Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai. Mthai told local media that The prime minister has heavy engagements, in reference to three multilateral summits overseas in November. "In our system, the vice president holds a position of great importance. He is second in the warrant of precedence," he said. Mathai also defended the present-day relevance of the 54-nation Commonwealth group of former colonies of the British empire, saying it has evolved considerably since it was founded in 1959 into a "useful forum for assistance of technical and economic nature to many countries". According to local media reports, India is opposed to a plan by Australia and Canada to pass a resolution on human rights at the summit. India is worried such a resolution would allow the Commonwealth group to interfere in member countries's internal affairs, according to local The Times of India. India is also concerned about repeated racist attacks on Indian nationals in Australia, which saw least one Indian national killed and more than a dozen injured.