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INDIAN INFERNO: Why is India burning its relationship with Australia?
India is jeopardising its relationship with Australia by falsely insisting that Indian students are being targetted for violence on racial grounds.
In a big bad world, the ranks of the free are few in number.
India is a natural Australian ally and close friend. We have much in common.
It is a democracy. It has demonstrated a consistent determination to stand up to China. Its development and transformation from a country overwhelmed by desperate poverty to a place of prosperity and innovation is one of the most exciting stories in the world today.
Australia should be part of that story. Our government and many Australian businesses are doing much to make that so.
And yet the Indian media and one irresponsible self-appointed Indian student spokesman Gautum Gupta is putting it all at risk by resorting to emotive and false attacks on the reputation of Australia and the people of Melbourne in particular.
Melbourne is widely regarded in Australia as our most cosmopolitan, inclusive and progressive city. And our safest.
That’s partly why so many international students came here in the first place.
And we’ve welcomed them and hoped that many would like it here and stay, injecting young, ambitious, can-do people into our great city. In many cases, they intend and we hope that they stay on and make a life here.
And that’s exactly what’s happened.
It’s to be celebrated.
And of course there are challenges.
FAKE STUDENTS
Not least of them is that many Indian students coming here come under false pretences.
They are not meant to come here to work. They are obliged to have sufficient funds to live in Australia for the period of their course of study.
But what actually happens is that many students borrow the funds that the Immigration Department require them to have in their bank account and return them once they’ve received their visa.
What actually happens is that many students from India have come here with the primary intention of working. For many, they’ll do the course because they have to and only then because it’s a path to permanent residency.
Whether that path to living in Australia is a legitimate one is probably a debate we need to have. If we’re going to sell the right to come here, we’d prefer an auction system. If we’re appalled by that idea, we should probably take a good look at export education to ensure it hasn’t become one big immigration scam, a kosher form of people smuggling.
As students tend to, they get unskilled jobs that don’t pay much. They often work late too. Often times, the pressure is on to work more than the permitted twenty hours a week to pay back the loans that got them here in the first place.
And that leads them to working late and getting around a city they don’t know well, late at night.
And a very small number of them get into trouble. Or get beaten up or mugged or worse.
It’s appalling and horrifying. But no more or less than the other violent crimes perpetrated here.
THE FACTS: MELBOURNE IS A VERY SAFE CITY
For all that Melbourne is a very safe city.
Monocle’s Most Liveable Cities Index includes attributes like:
safety/crime, international connectivity, climate/sunshine, quality of architecture, public transportation, tolerance, Environmental issues and access to nature, urban design, business conditions, pro active policy developments and medical care.
That index puts Melbourne in the Top Ten. Sydney a few steps behind at 13.
The Economist has Melbourne as the third most livable city in the world. Sydney at #8.
Low personal risk is a key criterion.
Mercer’s is another well regarded survey. It has Melbourne in the top twenty and Sydney above it at #9.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports Victoria has fewer assaults in Australia than any other state, including tranquil Tasmania.
India has more murders than any other country on Earth.
Even on a per capita basis, Indian has more than double the number of murders that occur in Australia.
And of course our level of reporting these crimes is considerably higher.
Those are the facts.
They don’t sit very comfortably with the false assertions of the Indian media that Melbourne is a violent and racist city.
BURNING OUR GOOD NAME
The sad case of apparent insurance fraudster Jaspreet Singh highlights the fact that the Indian media and government need to focus on facts and the truth before rushing to judgment and trashing Melbourne’s hard-earned reputation as a safe, tolerant and inclusive city.
He set fire to his own car hoping to claim it was a race-motivated attack on him.
Cunning idea. Perhaps he figured the insurer would quickly pay due to embarrassment.
But his execution was a little lacking, as he was caught on surveillance video buying petrol in a can and then managed to set himself a light leaving him singed.
His apparent lies should give everyone pause. Premier Brumby spoke for many Victorians yesterday when he said:
”I hope that there is some balance to the debate, some balance to the reporting in India, and certainly to date that balance hasn’t been there…”
The Federal Government has had enough too:
Government backbench senator David Feeney said the negative media coverage was not always justified.
“Sections of the Indian media are playing up the threat to Indian students in Australia in an irresponsible way,” Senator Feeney said.
Certainly there was no such balance coming from the self-appointed and dodgy spokesman of the Indian students (who is not actually a student) Gautum Gupta who said after Jaspreet Singh incident:
The incident sparked fear and fury among the city’s Indian population, with Gautum Gupta, a spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students in Australia, describing the alleged attack as ”most abhorrent … someone was burnt alive”.
Mr Gupta, speaking after a small group of Indian students gathered on the steps of Parliament House, said it was unclear if race had played a part in the incident, but urged ”all Victorians to [condemn] the minority of people who are racist and criminals … let them not win”.
”All we know is that there’s been another night of senseless violence on our streets … there were three attacks, one of them was [on an] Indian,” he said.
On another occasion Gupta claimed:
“that life is terrorizing for Indian students living in the country, as no state-level politician or the Indian Government have provided any assistance despite repeated attacks on the community.”
His credibility is left as singed as the unfortunate Mr Singh.
MELBOURNE LOVES MIGRANTS
The immigration debate in Australia is turning. And fast. The Liberals and Greens political party will go into the next election pledging to slash our immigration intake. It will be the first election fought on this issue in living memory.
For the most part, Liberals and Labor people from Melbourne are champions of immigration.
It’s certainly ironic that while all of that gets played out, very many Indians will be falsely led to the opposite conclusion by an irresponsible and deceitful Indian media and a government that seems strongly influenced by them. Added to the mix is the self-appointed student spokesman Gautum Gupta who has done much to besmirch the good name of Australia while conducting his own affairs in a highly questionable manner.
Drawing on the inspiration of Hillary Clinton and John Howard, we say back to them “If you don’t like it, don’t come here.” In Gupta’s case, we’d gladly facilitate his departure from the country he seems to hate so much with a one-way ticket to the hell-hole of his choosing.
Meanwhile international student visa applications to study at Australian universities continue to grow. Melbourne will continue to attract people to Australia’s most livable city long after the incendiary Indian press has raged on to engulf another undeserving victim.
Discussion
59 comments for “INDIAN INFERNO: Why is India burning its relationship with Australia?”
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This should be submitted for publishing at many far larger publications. Good work!
Some Indian students come to Australia as par of organized crime. Their primary purpose of coming here is to bring black money of politicians and invest here. Show on record that they work here and earn a lot. They send the money as a genuine earning to India. They forge papers when money is transferred. That is, if $1000 is sent from here at the other end it comes out on papers as $100000. They constantly look for people to be a part of this crime. They search for business partners in Indian stores, Indian restaurants. As a business partner only their name is required and they do not have to invest any money. When such gangs come into existence there is rivalry among gangs.
Also you should know that politics, educational institutes, companies and media are intertwined. The colleges, media and companies are owned by politicians. They decide what is to be said in the media.
Politicians have built hundreds of colleges and they do not want people to go out and study. So they create fear among people in India. Many institutions have tie-ups with American universities where they do part of their study in India and par in US, where by both politicians and US benefits. They tried getting making such arrangement in Australia but they were not successful.
The aim of Indian media to to cover up the gangs that they have created in Australia and to create fear among people in India.
Institutes such as Sathyabama Engineering College, Vellore Engineering college are owned by politicians or ex-politicians. Even getting into so called prestigious institutions is corrupt. The exam papers for All India Medical Exam, IIT exam are sold in black market for few lakhs. People with recommendation or power get into these institutes. Based on what I hae heard, the papers and marks are being swapped.
India is corrupt to the core, from politicians to clerk. In centralized marking system in the universities there is an amount to pay to get whatever marks you wanted. Now colleges have become deemed universities, imagine atrocities that will be going on inside.
All Indians are not bad. Many are lured to it because they cannot earn good money doing petty jobs in India. So they join hands with politicians in all crimes from money laundering to smuggling. There are many people who want to live a righteous life. But, with Indian movies portraying rich life with big car, beautiful girls and money people are ready to do anything to get such life.
I have doubts if this man doused his car and himself in petrol for mere $11,000 insurance money. Was he under instruction from any politician to do this act to feed Indian media with more racist attack news. May be his family in India has been paid money more than $11,000.
Thankyou so much for this article and also “anonymous” for the above very informative post. I found it very enlightening and had no idea these things could and do go on. I, like everyone else am very disturbed that we are being made out as a violent, racist city and never realised it coud be an organised attempt to discredit us. I just assumed the indian element didn’t realise that there is a bit of violence in every city and the indian “so called attacks” were a very minor percentage of that violence. Yesterday, amongst the numerous altercations around the country that aussie to aussie would have had, there was probably an incident somewhere involving a german or swede or american or sudanese, etc. I had one – I waited my turn (4 people in front) at a bar last night and when I ordered my drink I asked for the usual piece of lemon in it that this palce always has – Just as I asked a new customer walked up behind me and I was told I woud have to wait for the lemon to be added till the bartender served that one person who had just come up behind me. I had waited whilst she served 3 & 4 drinks to each person before me yet the new person behind me was not expected to wait the 10 seconds it took her to cut open a new lemon! If I was indian I would probably be calling it racisim! I am however a white 7th generation aussie and it was just a stupid young girl who had no idea of customer service! I hope “the powers that are” use all their energies to show up these constant so called “racists attacks” – whilst not acceptable of course – for the normal part of big city living of person to person conflicts that they are
Great Article.
Obviously it’s frustrating to most Australians to be vilified by the Indian media and some politicians.
It would be easy to go tit for tat, and highlight crimes by Indians in Australia, and crimes against Australians in India. However, as was the case with Malaysia in the past, defending yourself only increases the hysteria and racism directed towards us.
I do believe law and order needs to be improved in Australia – more policing and stiffer penalties. But both the Indian student associations, media and politicians have turned this into an excuse to engaged in vitriolic abuse. Now they are actually creating racial tension, both here, and in India; they should be ashamed.
Obviously one issue that is affecting Indian students is those that come here without adequate financial resources, living in outer suburbs that are cheap but where crime is more prevalent, not having a car and catching public transport late at night, and working in higher-risk shift work.
Whilst it would be unfair to just ban Indian students from being able to work on a student visa, although that may be an option if this goes on, surely the Government and universities can work with the real estate agents to find accomodation close to campus, add a margin, and include it in the cost of enrolment, to ensure these prospective students atleast come with enough money to live in a safer neighbourhood closer to campus.
I am an Indian and lived in Sydney for an year. I loved it! It is my favorite place in the world and the Aussies are SO friendly. I would take the bus or taxi even during the evenings and never felt unsafe. And I am a girl!
Based on my experience, I just couldn’t believe that there would be a systematic, coordinated campaign in Australia to attack Indians.
The author is right. India should not jeopardize its relationship with
Australia.
Thousands of Indian migrants vanish in Malaysia….
Many immigrant workers die of hunger in Middle East….
But Indian politicians focus on few attacks in Australia…Why???
Is it for URANIUM
Indian? Pakistani?
Same difference…
Dirka dirk dirka mohammed jihad.
[deleted - racist]
Oh good gracious me I really get off on seeing myself in the Press.
It makes my lund so hard seeing my photograph in the media.
Ted Ballieu has been fanning this for three years. The Indian community papers have been full of him visiting cabbies victims and promising more police on stations and longer sentences.
After the student rally last year went beyond the liberals expectation everyone got worried.
Anglos. Greeks, Indians and Sri Lankans and Chinese own the colleges along with (ex)politicians and factional hacks. So it is the same story here as in India.
Last Brumby’s office made a deal with Ted to come along the ‘harmony’ path and quit visiting victims and the international college owners were assumed to be the best allies. Brumby’s office told the Gautam Gupta to go away. After all what possible harm could a media savvy activist do in a digitally link world?
Since then things have gone from bad to worse because of the general law and order problem in mainly safe labor seats have become the staple of India media. Over hyping? Perhaps but think about this…Indian TV has reached into the homes of victims that local ALP MPs refused to visit.
It may be claims it is just normal street crime but it also shows how uncaring and out of touch our politicians have become. They do not visit their seats they do not know what horrors go on to all citizens there.
The private colleges have collapsed in part because of the Rudd governments changes to the skills list and English language test. And Ballieu has regular meetings with this sorry group who were once in charge of a river of gold.
It appears that enrolments in good public universities may be up and will grow over time.
The federal government wants more international students to offset the education budget. They want to foster this international student education industry but it can not be let to go out of control again like it did under Howard.
Basically this huge trade has not been supported in anyway in poorer suburbs. That is Labor’s home turf. Why be shy about spending more on police and security in their political heart lands? c’mon there’s is plenty of pork for the marginals.
You can blame Gupta and the Indian media if it makes you feel better.
Meanwhile Red Ted gets a free ride on law and order.
Nikil if this really is about uranium, then India should sign the non-proliferation treaty, bring Australia back to the table and negotiate a deal.
Howard was right to refuse to sell uranium to India, when they aren’t a signatory. Simple as that.
How tolerant and harmonious is India? Not very if you are in one the lower castes hey!
Australia is not a “white” country, its a hotchpotch of mixed cultures, unlike homogenous countries like India.
Nothing like a bit of nationalist xenephobia hey India ?
No matter if you’re black, white, pink or green – wouldn’t catch me walkin the streets of Bombay or Delhi late at night.
There’s this whole victim personality complex if you are black, Indian or whatever and you are in a western country.
How many times have you been at customs at the airport lets say and a black/asian etc person will arc up at an immigration officer and say “you’re doing that just because I’m black!”
With the racist meaning behind their comment being – you are white I am black, you are persecuting me just because of my race.
Comments like that are just a racial attack by the black person against the customs officer.
But thats ok, because only “white” people can be racists – right ?
What a racist piece of crap!
Face it Brumby has lost the plot.
Did the Indian who was murdered stab himself?
The real question is was he murdered because he was Indian or was it because he was walking through a dodgy part of town late at night. I think the later
[deleted]
“Incendiary elements of the Indian media…”
You mean there are elements of the Indian media who aren’t incendiary?
By the look of this AU Falcon [deleted - racist]
It was interesting that the recent attack on two indians in Swanston Street turned out to be by a group of young men of east asian appearance. Usually the ethnicity of the perpetrators isn’t publicised, and the media and community tend to assume that it is “anglo” racists. But the delightful truth is that there are a range of thugs of various ethnicities out there ready to beat up stray indians and anyone else they come across. Andrew I don’t quite agree that Melbourne is a safe place. I avoid the city and trains at night now – both have an air of menace It’s a shame.
The reason this has happened is that left wing hand wringers have been, for years boosting the claim of Australian racism. Labour, up till recently, has stood by and not defended the country. Then, after a few incidents involving Indians, the left played it up again, except this time, it affected jobs in the education establishment- Labour’s heartland and they were caught flatfooted. A narrative they had allowed to become established had turned round and biten them and their fellow travellers in the education industry.
As the whole industry was based on an immigration scam, I can’t say that too many people will care that the left has been hoist by its own petard.
[deleted]
Throw out all the Indians…..screw our healthcare system, our education industry, screw our taxi services, screw our cricketing millions… oh yes and screw our fourth largest export market…..who needs those curry munchers anyways !
Let them get lost to India, open up another call centre and take away our last 5 remaining jobs !
Oh yes, and if they want our uranium, they must beg….we trust it better in the hands of the Chinese, who of course, will fight on our side in the next war !
Advance Australia indeed…..
I think it is timely that someone did a study of crime against indian students in India – is Melbourne really more dangerous for middle/ upper-class Indian kids than Mumbai?
[deleted - racist]
[deleted - racist]
H1N1 in great form.
There are so many Sri Lankan students in Australia. Aussies unfortunately cannot distinguish between us and Indians. Despite not being able to distinguish us, no Sri Lankans have been hurt in Australia. No Pakistani. No Bangladeshis, etc. Maybe the rest of South Asia is just not desperate for insurance money.
Sri Lankan (Tamils) were out and about protesting about the war last year. If Australians wanted to target brown skin people, these would have been the easiest targets and yet no one was hurt.
Most of us Sinhalese who go to Australia, go with enough cash to look after ourselves. There is very little to no fraud when it comes to Australian visas in Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately, much of this reaction by indian media and indians has to do with them trying to project themselves as a world power. Despite having the second biggest population, they feel they are not taken serious enough. Australia is just a scape goat because the strategy was, if Australia could be ‘taught’ a lesson then other countries will listen when India speaks.
Australia is a wonderful tolerant land. Australia already has gone through its dark racist past and left it behind to become a strong developed nation. India on the other hand still struggles with castism, inferiority complex, poverty, etc. India could do well to learn from Australia than to create fear among Indians in Australia.
Ask any Indians who settled in Australia to go back to India and we all know what the answer would be…”Are you out of your mind”.
They overpopulated and ruined their country now they are here to do the same.
The issue here is if Indians are being particularly targeted in racially motivated attacks, and as such the figures in the story are fairly irrelevant.
Given there has been no evidence of any attacks being racially motivated there’s no reason to assume the attacks are anything other than attacks of opportunity, that unfortunately the Indian immigrant student population’s lifestyle are particularly vulnerable to.
The fact Indians are over-represented in crime figures correlates directly with their over-representation in high risk suburbs and jobs.
The great majority of Indian media and subsequently some of their politicians have sought for Australia to take particular action in ensuring the safety of their citizens. This is a completely unjust and petulant demand given their inability to provide any compelling argument for their being an element of sustained racial motivation in the attacks.
And so arises the question of what to do. Brumby has it right, in the diplomatically the best course of action is to seek Indian representatives head on and demand their demands and public rhetoric. On the home front, the best course of action is the exact opposite of what Brumby has been doing. Contrary to the figures, Melbourne is not a safe city, nor even a just one, as the political infestation of crime displacement and customer service has taken hold of its Police force, pure arrogance guides its justice system. The first step to a fix, is for the electorate to understand that crime figures, which are only ever reported crime figures, at their very best, are an awful indication of anything and most often a gross misrepresentation.
Maybe the Grub by flexing his alleged “diplomatic muscles” and stopping uranium exports to India while permitting them to China really did offend the Indians.Maybe the attacks on Indians which have indeed been occurring provide an opportunity for the Indian Government to enjoy a little bit of payback.Perhaps if other opportunities arise the Indians will exploit those as well.Perhaps The Grub can be prevailed upon to again unleash his alleged “diplomatic skills” and solve this problem just as he was managed to solve so many others during his glorious reign.
Since reading about Gautum Gupta on Vexnews last year, I keep seeing him quoted as a reliable and representative voice of India in Australia. What the hell’s going on? Doesn’t the Age, the Herald-Sun, any of the commercial broadcast networks or the ABC read Vexnews? Can someone please call the News Editors and the Chiefs of Staff? He MUST be exposed.
how much truth is there to the rumour that the Indian stabbed in yarraville was killed by a fellow indian to whom he owed money to.If the above stories are correct then he may have got it before he started his education.
Ut uzz wrong und vury nusty to make fun uv furunner wuth strunge uccents
Undrew, Why huv you bunned me frum cummenting un your blug uv freedum?
It doesn’t matter.
The police and the police Minister are not doing their jobs.
Bye Bye Bob Cameron.
The weakest Police Minister for 60 years.
Bob must go
Brumby must go
To think that the South Australian Government was going to ban me from posting.
Thank you very much for that enlightening article
We have rank political opportunism from the Indian student groups, media and politicians, at the expense of ruining bilateral relations.
I suspect the popular anti-Australian sentiment in India and eagerness to believe in a “racist Australia” myth was set in train by the recent cricketing disputes on the 2007/08 tour.
The controversial second test at the SCG, where a crestfallen India sought to blame their collapse and loss on poor Australian sportsmanship with regards to catch claims and walking, and the Australian claim Harbhajan Singh racially abused Andrew Symonds, which India fiercely denied, became the popular and media zeitgeist in India at the time, an anti-Australian meme repeated again now over student safety.
The more serious political resentment of Australia has to do with Rudd’s decision not to sell uranium to India, after the Howard government indicated it would, and the Americans agreed to nuclear co-operation with India. That is the underlying tension between our two nations.
If Australia agreed to sell uranium to India then I have no doubt their politicians and media would call of the dogs of war, and seek to calm, rather than fan the flames, of popular sentiment.
The other premise of you article that India and Australia are natural allies, or by extension, historical allies, is wrong. We are not, and never have been.
India was an ally of the Soviet Union during the cold war. Australia, with America and SEATO, were, and remain, allies of Pakistan, India’s mortal enemy. We, again with America, after Whitlam and Nixon, remain on friendly terms with China, India’s other mortal enemy.
Regionally America, and to a lesser extent us, coordinated with Pakistan-Afghan Mujahideen-China-Cambodia(Khmer Rouge), against the USSR-Afghan Communists-India-Vietnam.
Independent India has never been a historical ally, only within the British Empire. I do not think we will ever be natural allies, unless we want to go to war against Pakistan and China for the sake of interests that are of no importance to Australia: i.e. Kashmir & Tibet.
By recent events India certainly does not place any value on our relationship, unless they can get access to our uranium reserves.
The Indian media needs to hear an “aggrieved Australian” meme that a popular resentment of the way Australia has been unfairly portrayed in India is preventing a breakthrough on an agreement to sell uranium. Uranium is an existential issue for India, whilst education is merely a small economic issue for Australia.
Victorian streets are a danger to all, not just Indians.
Not enough police and too many weak judges.
Brumby, Hulls and Cameron – 3 losers who will lose govt in november.
to TQS
Have an honest look at mananagement of Multiculturalism, transport and policing in this state.
Especially in safe labor seats.
This is state failure – you can join the thugs and try and blame Indian students, with their mobile phones emailing Indian media but at the end of the day we need to clean up our own streets.
All the crime stats in Victoria are a tissue of lies – Brumby, Hulls, Kosky, Batchelor and Cameron would be up for criminal neglect in the private sector for what has happened in our trains and in our cab industry.
And Pakula should take a train at night out side of his wealthy bayside suburb and get a grip on reality.
The state ALP has been caught red handed neglecting the key services of transport and policing and exposed, not just in Indian, but around the world.
Brumby’s Victoria versus the world spin does not cut it – he needs to man up and do his job.
see this article in our national newspaper…..
Brumby must take the blame for anti-Australian backlash
AUSTRALIA is enduring a catastrophe in its foreign policy and its standing in the world generally, and it is predominantly the fault of the Victorian Premier, John Brumby. Perhaps no premier since World War II has done more to damage the Australian national interest than Brumby.
Through the widely publicised assaults, murders and arson attacks on Indians and Indian houses of worship, Melbourne has become the racist-violence capital of Australia.
Brumby’s reaction of indolent denial, and the incompetent lack of response from his government and police force, have contributed hugely to a vast anti-Australian backlash in India. But this is happening throughout Asia and more broadly internationally. The BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera – all are covering the attacks in a way that would constitute hundreds of billions of dollars worth of negative publicity for Australia.
Last week the Indian high commissioner, Sujatha Singh, told the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, that the Victorian government was in denial over the issue. She said there would be long-term consequences of the attacks. She has not used the term racist attacks herself and has frequently stated that she does not think Australia is a racist country. But, as reported in Fairfax papers, she told the Governor-General that the police in Queensland, South Australia and NSW had been far more effective than the Victorians.
The issue moved to new heights following the stabbing death of Indian student Nitin Garg in early January. There is now a raging, anti-Australian fury in India that cuts across any party or political or even communal divides. Australia has never been so hated in India and in much of Asia.
This is a bitter moment for the Rudd government. It is not responsible for the Melbourne attacks and it can’t fix the relationship until they stop.
Last week in London, India’s Foreign Minister, S.M. Krishna, twice met Foreign Minister Stephen Smith to express his government’s dismay. Krishna said it was “becoming increasingly difficult to accept these attacks are mere opportunistic crime and devoid of any racial motives”.
Krishna also told Smith: “There has been no visible progress so far into most of the investigations into previous attacks, including the murder of Nitin Garg. It (is) the responsibility of the Australian authorities to immediately put effective measures into practice to prevent any further attacks.”
The Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, Preneet Kaur, apparently expressing a personal view, said she had advised Indian students not to go to Australia “at the moment”.
The matter is heating up at the top of Indian politics. Sushma Swaraj, the leader of the main opposition BJP Party, met Krishna this week and demanded the government take a tougher stand with Australia.
Following an arson attack on a Sikh temple in Melbourne, the Victorian police, with the same mixture of banality and idiocy which has characterised the Brumby approach to this issue, said there was no evidence of racial or religious motivation in the attack.
A spokesman for India’s ruling Congress Party said after that attack: “Australia needs to be accountable for crimes against Indians and Indian property.”
Sujatha Singh has been called back for consultations on the attacks, although this has not been formalised into an official protest. However, she is almost certain to be called to give evidence to the Indian parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs. The Indian parliament resumes on February 14 and the Melbourne attacks are likely to be a prominent, perhaps dominant, issue.
Australia has longed for attention in Asia, but not this kind of attention.
Following publication of Singh’s damning judgment on the Victorian government, Brumby went even further into his know-nothing, admit-nothing, do-nothing defensive crouch, saying, bizarrely, that: “Assaults on Indian students are under-represented as a population share.”
It was only a little while ago that the Victorian police claimed they did not keep statistics on the ethnicity of crime victims.
The state’s Chief Commissioner of Police, Simon Overland, has been all over the shop on this issue. First there were no ethnic statistics, now there are statistics everywhere (none of them remotely reliable). First there was no problem, now he says he’s known about the problem for years.
Overland’s clumsiness and inexperience in international issues has been a factor in this. But he is serving Brumby and it is Brumby who must take responsibility.
Brumby said further that he would like to meet Singh personally, because: “I’ll be able to reassure her that Victoria is a much safer place than other places in Australia.”
In fact, Victorian crime statistics are a joke. Last year the Victorian Ombudsman issued a scathing report, Crime Statistics and Police Numbers, in which he demonstrated massive, systematic under-reporting of crime.
It is also the case that Victoria has by far the smallest police force in Australia, per capita. It is the only state to have reduced its per capita police numbers since 2002.
Naturally fewer police means that fewer crimes are recorded. It doesn’t mean that fewer crimes happen.
I have interviewed Indian students who have tried to report serious assaults to the police and been brushed off. No one can have the slightest faith in Victorian crime statistics. The anecdotal evidence of widespread racial abuse and assault of Indians is overwhelming.
So far, the issue has done massive damage to Australia’s public standing in India. It is now moving into the stage where it will do serious damage to the bilateral relationship and to business. In the last couple of weeks two Australian companies which had expected to sign contracts in India were told their commercial partners no longer wanted to deal with Australian companies.
Brian Hayes, the chairman of the Australia India Business Council, is deeply worried at this trend. He says: “I think there’s a danger this could have a spiral effect. It could spill into business. This won’t affect the Rio Tintos and the BHPs, but it could affect small and medium enterprises.”
Hayes agrees entirely with the reported negative assessment of High Commissioner Singh on the Victorian response. “That of course is the major problem – if you don’t recognise that there may be a racial element. A mature country can deal honestly with issues like this . . . “We had such a good relationship and to see it collapse in a few months is very sad.”
The Rudd government, too, shares intense frustration with Brumby’s feckless response.
India is an enormous power in the new world order. It is Australia’s fourth-largest export market, our second-largest source of foreign students. We earn about $14 billion a year in education exports. And it is a central player in the geo-strategic equations of Asia and increasingly of the whole world.
The Rudd government has the ambition to transform the relationship into one which is in the front rank of Australia’s relations.
Given that India is the longest-standing democracy in Asia and because of our cultural and sporting links, this ought to be a realistic ambition. But the violence against Indians in Melbourne is rendering this impossible.
Brumby and Overland sometimes say they have always acknowledged that some attacks had a racial motive. But the overwhelming burden of their comments has been to deny the problem and to spend more energy criticising the Indian media.
Brumby seems to have leapt with delight on isolated cases where it turns out an Indian was the perpetrator of a crime, or where a crime has been falsely reported. As if such a pathetic, dismal response is a substitute for leadership. Brumby has emerged as a narrow, provincial politician of very grave limitations.
The solution to the problem is not exactly rocket science. Melbourne needs a lot more police deployed in the danger zones a lot more often. But to do that Brumby would have to admit there is a problem. Here’s a suggestion for the Victorian Premier – if he abolished the police force altogether, then no crimes would be reported and he could claim he had achieved the lowest crime rates in the world.
A compliant Melbourne media has helped Brumby maintain his fictions about Melbourne crime.
Here’s a final anecdote for the Premier. I took a cab from Melbourne airport late one night recently. The driver was Indian. We stopped in Bell Street at traffic lights. Two young white guys crossing the road were standing on the median strip. They looked at the cab, looked at the driver, and then threw their drinks at the cab, hitting the windscreen. No doubt the police could reassure the cab driver there was no racial motive. And no crime need be recorded.
When Brumby and Overland were subject to fawning profiles in The Age’s Melbourne magazine last month, neither even mentioned the attacks on Indians as a priority.
It’s all, apparently, in the mind.
Thunks for lutting me buck Undrew. Uff I cun uver be of assustance lut me know
China had this problem a few years back and solved it by moving most student trade to oz.
India is a slow moving democracy like Australia so the media have had to kick the national Indian pollies to get any movement.
The regional politicians in Punjab and Andra Predesh have felt the heat first as many students come from these two outward looking states. Punjab has export Punjabis and wheat and Andra Pradesh is IT hub.
I would what smaller trading partners like the US would have done it they had 1500 plus attacks (overlands figures) in one state?
The yanks attacked us for killing camels for christs sake.
On the whole the national leadership of India has more serious issues like economic development and a real domestic terror threat and Pakistan and Afganistan.
I am sure they would rather that Brumby and co sorted themselves out and made sure middleclass students were safe here.
As for Gupta, India’s view is that he is a resident here (Australian citizen even?) so he is Australia’s problem.
Is vexnews suggesting that one student leader called Gautam Gupta has derailed the most professional ALP machine in Australia?
This issue of violence against students started with the cabbies and has been used by the Liberal party as a profile building program.
Is Brumby taking advice from Indian college operators?
This is a worry as these mainly liberal guys played politics with racial violence for years in the taxi industry and have basically been caught in a web of their own making.
Brumby needs to get some samrter thinking going. His liberal party mate went to India and said all is fine in four press conferences and the story was carried in one regional paper and even then had the damning disclaimer that the Indian representative from Victoria was an ‘internaional education consultant’ – in other woulds an education agent, alledgedly with six student recruitment offices in India.
So the Brumby brains trust is relying on this guy for advice on this issue.
Contain the freelance student activists, police our streets and the media story can be managed here and in India.
At the moment Brumby government is locked into a liberal party trap – trying to convince an Indian public to do a 180 degree change in attitude (good luck with that) – while telling us poor Victorians ‘it ain’t racism – the streets are dangerous for all of us.’
Not the kinda equality people want.
The ALP State Government is racist against all Indians
I’ve been a bit naughty. I’ve been going through some election brochures I’ve kept for years. Funny that none of them mention Australia was going to be swamped with nig nogs, chinks and (for Christ’s sake) muslims.
None of the flyers mentioned there might be a backlash, riots, and bashings and a murder of Indians.
Australia has been changed forever by nameless, invisable people. Now, among many other things, we have to worry about Indians who were invited here, not by me, or by anyone I know!
Gautam Gupta – who the hell made him king of indian students ????
Indeed, this Gupta fool reckons he is some kind of Maharaja.
I guess Gautam is Indian Intelligence Agent. The racist act is a well written drama.
Someone must be mad to burn himself for $11,000. There is something much more important for staging this.
If he is 29 yrs old and husband of a student. What did he and wife do after finishing college in India. Why did they come here? Why is the daughter in India? More background information must be dug out.
India is one of the most corrupt places on earth. Even a person not born in India, that is from Bangladesh, Pakistan, SriLanka can come to India and buy Indian passport and all ID documents for money. There are corrupt officers who can give birth certificate, school certificate and passport.
So how to know that militants from Afghan are not sending their people as Indians to western countries.
I agree Brumby has handled things wrong but Ted Ballieu is not making his chance at getting government and an opportunity to fix this any easier, with his ridiculous statements about Victoria being a racist society. I am angry that one of my potential leaders should publicly say that. It is obvious from the amount of deleted racist posts above that there are many who are annoyed at Indians and immigrants and ‘foriegners’ in general, living here and taking what we consider advantage of us and the system our tax and blood, sweat and tears has paid and worked for. I get annoyed myself when I see a struggling ‘aussie’ (who is probably the 1st or 2nd generation of an immigrant anyway) working their heart out to support their family or worse still can’t get a job whilst foriegners of all races come in and undercut prices and play the system to get jobs and government handouts, not to mention their involvement in crime and violence but that does not make me a racist. I feel it makes me an annoyed realist. The issue here is not so much the indian students as it is being annoyed at all ‘immigrants’ given unfair advantages over those born and bred here but the indians have managed to make it all about them. If they keep it up maybe they can force a referendum and we will bring back the old White Australia policy which will really serve their propaganda cause.
The above article is enlighting for the Australians but the rest of the world find it difficult to digest this. The complexion is not the parameter to find whether a person is civilised or not. There are lots of fair skinned people in Australia, Saudi, Kuwait and many part of the world. The are uncultured barberians. We the civilised world dont expect anything more from the Australians. Because we know the history of Australia better than the Kangaroos. Australia is the place where all criminals were exiles from various parts of t he world by the Britishers. So the culture and civilisation is there in the DNA of each australian including Mr. Rudds (Thats is why he is not admitting the racial angle in the attackes against foreigners). Its no only Indans, lots of foreigners are suffering in these countries. I have been to Kuwait a few weeks ago. I spoke to many expartraits in Kuwait. Every body had a bad experience in Kuwait. The reason for this issue is, The Kuwaities are uneducated. They might have money but no education. This country has to depend on other countries for everything expect oil. And for the kind information of all Kuwaities, Oil is not a everlasting thing. All the oil wells will empty one day. And you holy cows will have to go to new pastures for food. And the poor Philipinos, Srilanksns, Indians Egyptians Chinese etc are marching towards prosperity.Kuwaities should not forget the past (Kuwaities learned to brush their teeth jus few decades back) I can see these people going and working in these countries as sweepers and maids. Its the rule of the world, that the wealth will not remain in few hands. It will keep changing hands.
Coming back to civilisation and culture, we cant help Australians. Its their fate that the bourn as australians. What you can do is, try to learn from others.
May God bless you…
Mohammed,as some of the comments above have obviously offended you, it would be nice of you you to realise that your comments may offend others. This concept is called consideration (mixed with a little tolerance) for cultures other than your own, or is this too much of an “uncivilised” and “barbaric” proposal on my part?
As for the comment of us being solely derived from “criminals”, maybe you should brush up on your British and Australian history a little before you go making such brash statements, lest you (and you individually, personally, not the entirety of any particular culture or nation) be considered a fool.
I would also respectfully decline any blessings on the basis of not knowing your particular religious beliefs and therefore which deity you refer to as your god.
Have a nice day if you wish.
Its GAUTAM FISA and VASIN AGENT A SIN who have created this mess.
GAUTAM FISA…GAUTAM FISA…STOP THIS MAN
If the Indian media states the truth, it doesn’t mean that they are “burning bridges”.
The Australian government delibrately allowed immigration for vocational courses to charge Indian students riduculous fees.
Why Indians are going to study in australia when there is very good institution here in India.They can get6-7 digit salary here only if they study well.Its easier to set up their business here only than in australia.