‘Australian government needs to show some compassion’

The initial reaction of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was that these attacks were not “race-based” but just a “regrettable fact of urban life”. He even went to the extent of pointing that in the last decade 20 Australian nationals have lost their lives in India. His reasoning doesn’t cut much ice. Considering the sheer number of attacks that have taken place in such a short span of time,the argument that they are goaded by motives of robbery and theft is unconvincing,especially now when the Australian Police have come on record saying that some of these attacks have been racial. I am surprised at the fact that some analysts are giving their own ‘erudite’ version of the problem. They attribute it to the ongoing economic slowdown,saying that recession makes people vulnerable to violence. They try to substantiate their argument by pointing to the Great Depression of 1929-33 when millions of the unemployed in Europe became recruits for Hitler. But the situation today is different. We live in an interconnected global world,with people like Thomas Friedman using vivid theories to say that greater the exchange of trade and people between the countries,the greater are chances of peace. The first world (Australians are one of them),claim to have overcome their prejudices.

Moreover,our students have gone there by spending a significant amount of money. Close to a lakh Indian students who are undertaking various vocational courses were invited by advertisements of the myriad Australian universities. It is the duty of their government to ensure their safety. Yes,we know that an absolute guarantee is not possible. But the spate of incidents of violence suggests that the Australian Government is still in a state of denial.

In a press conference earlier this week in Chandigarh,parents of a youngster narrated how the Victorian Police did not even allow them to see the face of their dead son. Rather than pontificating Indian media about not sensationalising the issue,the Aussies need to put its own house in order first.