Due to some unfocused and biased reporting, the story has turned itself inside out into a gut-wrenching jumble of unrelated statistics and half-dead individuals. To join the chorus would be a travesty, but is undeniably inevitable. The essence is this: various Indian students in Australia, particularly in the city of Melbourne, were at the receiving end of criminal activity, ranging from threatening looks to screwdrivers in the head. Said education tourists in their furious attempts to launch a typical city-crippling protest march in Melbourne managed to earn a display from the finest riot control officers of the Metropolitan Police Force. A few after-shocks were felt as well, next door – in Sydney and as far off as Perth.
Opinion makers on both sides of the water have been having a ball. Prime Ministers, random government officials, Leaders of Opposition and self-appointed Leaders of the People like newspaper editors and TV analysts have aided the occasional self-righteous blogger, film-star or cricketer in moulding public opinion into incongruous shapes and self-referential sculptures, all fighting their own little wars. Voices have popped up with vague mentions of the Lebanese community, the ones who urinate in public, the uncultured parents and the formerly racist White Australia, often in the same breath and certainly never too far apart. A Pandora’s Box of sorts has been opened up in the Australian media, particularly centred on Sydney, host to a tense suburb known to the world as Harris Park. This is a region curiously devoid of a dominant community: a third Indian, a third Lebanese and a third local, it has accusations of bias and discrimination flying all over.
Back home, we have endured the routine four days of a possessed Breaking News machine, followed by serene Padma Shri awardees muttering and grumbling, and slowing things down to a mud-slinging competition from its prior state of all-out war. We linger a moment longer when Australia is mentioned, blink before listening to what Adam Gilchrist and Steve Waugh have to say, and in general raise the corner of an eyebrow.
Our media has neglected to highlight the unexpectedly dissident voices of older members of the Indian community settled in Australia, with their student lives far behind them, who have quite loudly expressed their dissatisfaction with the new breed of Indians in Australia, particularly, the likes of the non-aristocracy. In the process, an ancient bias has resurfaced, taking the form of heavy criticism of the NRI Proletariat by the NRI Bourgeoisie. The predominant issues concern the Proletariat’s inability – or unwillingness – to adjust to and accept a new society, and the tendency to form groups and indulge in foolish flaunting of riches, while occasionally breaking the law.
Despite the occasional bouncing back and forth by their dignitaries, Australia’s response has been more measured, indeed to the point of waiting for intervals of 48 hours between press releases to allow the media to drill in every snippet as hard as possible. The official Indian approach has been its patented breathless rant blurted out in a thousand contradictory voices at once. With Narendra Modi expressing particular concern over the safety of Gujaratis in Australia and Chandrababu Naidu showering his inimitable hurried-little-man attention on the affected families in Andhra Pradesh, the country has gone into auto-pilot mode.
India’s subsequent exit from the 20-Twenty World Cup has grabbed the headlines for a few days, giving us some much-needed respite from the monotonous voices of “concerned Former -Deputy-In-Charge-of-the-Australian-Chapter-of-the-Save-the-Whales-Foundation”. We’ve had a variety of responses on both sides, from whinging at a biased referee to sulking in front of a strict head-master, and have made discoveries about the intellectual capacities of several household names. Surely someone has gained something. Maybe now–with the news slowly fading–is the time someone might think of actually doing something about it? But thinking is out of fashion these days.
Abir Dasgupta
