The war of words intensified on Thursday between India and Australia over the continuing attacks on Indian students in Australia since May 2009. Two Indians have also been killed in recent attacks. India on Thursday toughened its stand saying Australia must take urgent remedial action to ensure that no such attacks happen again. Australia has been saying that India and the Indian media are drumming up jingoistic hysteria over what are not racist crimes.
CNN-IBN on Face The Nation debated: Are Indian students in Australia victims of racism?On the panel
of experts to debate the issue were sociologist and former professor of sociology in Deakin University, Sanjay Srivastava; Chief of South Asia Bureau, Der Spiegel, Padma Rao; former diplomat KC Singh who has also served in Australia and Director of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation Tarun Vijay. At the beginning of the show, 80 per cent of those who voted in said that Indian students in Australia were victims of racism, while 20 per cent disagreed. Racism versus urban crime Sanjay Srivastava started off the discussion by saying that the students studying in Australia thought that the crimes were a mixture of urban crime and racism. He said, “You can either have a war of words or try and do something concrete. The Indian Government can ask the Australian government to look at the sets of rules and regulations that put Indian students in dangerous job, working late nights, etc. So, I think we need to move beyond simply trading words.” In order to look at concrete steps, the identification of the disease needs to be made a priority. There are 200,000 immigrant populations in Australia, none of the settlers are being attacked. It’s the new breed of Indian students who are being attacked. KC Singh agreed and felt that there should be a recognition of the real problem.
“Multiculturalism is recent in Australia. Australia has had a “whites only policy” for a very long time and when things are nice and bright and the economy is looking up, then the tolerance levels are higher. But when the downturn comes, we have seen elsewhere in the west, this is not specific to Australia only, but first the Australian government has to recognise that there is a problem,” said Singh. “There may be a sociological explanation, but when they (Australia) gave the visas and allowed universities to come to India and recruit student, when money went into their coffers, nobody objected then. When the policy doesn’t work out and there’s a problem which arises, then you can’t turn around,” said Singh. It happens only is Australia Should Australia have been much more introspective about its educational programmes holding out to students from India? Padma Rao came on rather assertively at this point of the discussion and said that India had a long way to go before it could question other people’s educational and racial policies. “I am not even beginning to go down the road and mention crimes committed in the name of caste and gender in this country,” added Rao. Tarun Vijay expressed shock at Padma’s Rao’s argument and felt that her argument wasn’t an argument at all. “I believe that the Aussies are the most atrocious and horrendous racists on this planet. These people should be taught a lesson and they should be banned. Indian students shouldn’t be allowed to go to Australia,” stressed Vijay.
Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/attacks-on-indians-in-oz-not-just-a-criminal-act/108391-3.html
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