Don't test India's patience on atrocities against Indian students in Australia
Australia must live up to its international obligations
It has not happened today only. I did not happen yesterday only. It has been happening in Australia for the last over six months. Latest has been the murder of Indian student Nitin Garg in Australia followed by another Indian set on fire in Melbourne. Indian students have been the target of harassment and humiliation since long. They have been subjected to unprovoked beating, stabbing and attempts to murder and killed even. And, unfortunately, the Indian government has utterly failed to ensure that the Australian government extends proper protection to the Indian students.
The Indian students have not gone to Australia just for fun; they have gone there for study. They are not a burden on that country; Australia, according to a report, is earning something about more than 40,000 rupees annually from admission to Indian students, besides helping the Australian economy in other ways. If the Government has allowed them admissions and visas, it is equally its duty to provide security to them. The Australian government is not derelict in minting money through admission of Indian students in the country, but it definitely is derelict when it comes to performing its obligation to protect the life and property of those very students.
The Indian students studying in Australia, too, are human beings and they have, as per international law and practice, every right for the protection of their human rights. But, surprisingly, neither the human rights organizations within Australia nor the International Human Rights Organisation has so far taken note of this blatant violation of the human rights of Indian students.
The Australian government has time and again denied that what treatment is being meted out to the Indian students is a display of racial hate and discrimination. But as per reports and blogs that have appeared in Australia, the native citizens, particularly the youth, have taken exception to the Indian students greeting each other the way the Indians do in India. They also take offence when Indian students speak to each other in Hindi or their native tongues. They also feel offended when the Indian students celebrate the festivals as they do in India and at time perform pujas on special religious occasions. If it is not racial discrimination and hate, what else is it?
The question arises: is it not the human right of every individual in a civilized society in the twenty-first century to live and enjoy freedom of belief? This only means that the Indian society has been much generous and broadminded as do the people in other countries, like Australia. In India we have never objected - and instead, appreciated, encouraged and facilitated -- when foreigners come to India and they speak their own language, they wear the way they like, behave the way they prefer, and even celebrate their national and religious ceremonies. Does it then not mean that Australia is a very close and narrow-minded society?
It looks the Governments here and elsewhere have double standards as far as Indians and their own natives are concerned. In the aftermath of the rape of a Russian woman tourist late at night in Goa when a minister opined that the woman should not have taken the liberty of roaming about at such odd hours, certain sections of society in India and Russian government objected to this advisory. But now the Indian government - as also the Australian government - has issued an advisory to Indian students setting about dos and donts.
What is a matter of shame is that the Indian government has so far failed to rein in the Australian government to act and restrain its citizens, particularly the youth. What the Australian citizens are indulging against the Indian students is nothing short of a form of terrorism which Australia otherwise swears to abhor and vows to fight. Why can't the India government take diplomatic retaliatory steps to make the Australian government see reason and realize its duty?
Tolerance has a limit. Patience of India need not be put to test. If the Indian government fails, it will be the people who will be forced to act. And that would be an obnoxious situation which everyone should avoid. Let both the Governments of India and Australia realize their duty and act, lest the situation gets worsened. It is in the interests of the friendly relations between both the countries and the nation.
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