I remember my great grand-mom clairvoyantly instructing me not to venture out of the house despite the smaller and larger hands of the clock finding solace in 8 and 12 respectively. Even the fairly remote, scarcely equipped Telangana village of Dharur took to nocturnal autism.
Yes, nocturnal autism brings me to my focal issue for this post. Much has been made out of our Indians being attacked, besieged, stabbed, shot, bludgeoned, crucified, plagued, shattered, beleaguered, dilapidated, smashed (and every draconian adjective that fits the bill) down south in kangaroo land. So why are things that bad Down Under?
Our Indians, in most other countries, by virtue of their sheer chauvinism toward fellow Indians and the community, are inadvertent victims of autism, of pointless reticence. The lack of coalescence with native Aussie folks is a problem. It is a hereditary trait that is imbibed in us, a most unwarranted one. We must shun this I-will-be-with-my-Brethren-only feeling and make ourselves broad minded enough to the prospect of meeting and building relationships with all sorts of people.
The misplaced sense of animosity of the native Aussies toward foreign settlers is evident in the gory manifestation of these crimes. The dearth of hospitality towards guests of the land does not augur well for the reputation of the country. The economic tremors as a fallout of these episodes will be felt in Australia for long.
Yet, I do not believe the Government of Australia has too much of a role to play in all of this. What CAN a government possibly do if a horde of intellectually bereft, inebriated men decide to ambush and malign a brown coloured passerby? Beyond probably imposing diabolically stern impositions upon the perpetrators of these crimes, and issuing emotionally stirring advisories through TV channels and newspapers, there simply is nothing the administration can do to curb this malicious, streetside violence. Australia’s Immigration Minister, Chris Evans’ rather interesting observation about this kind of crime ‘happening all over the world’ is no cushion for a country with an alarmingly hostile environment, that requires swift remedy. But WHY would people simply want to attack for no reason an innocent community of foreign settlers? Why misplace the trust reposed in your land and respond to it with daggers and iron rods? WHAT could be the motivational factor to carry out these inhuman acts of mindless violence?
Mr. S.M. Krishna (the Foreign Minister who’s enjoyably hogged more limelight than many others to have taken the chair in the recent past) put up an intriguing suggestion on the table--Why choose Australia as the educational destination for a career option as trivial as hair dressing or computer animation? Should the Foreign Ministry’s advisory against travel to Australia, then be taken seriously? Definitely, some food for thought.
Given the current abominable state of affairs, it is sad to note the unhospitable approach of the Aussies toward their guests. Agreed, surreptitious murders and clandestine felonies find their place in every country. But the frequency at which Indians, deliberately or otherwise, are targeted in Australia is no coincidence. If the attacks, as claimed by the Melbourne Police, are indeed ‘opportunistic’ in nature and not racist, then why is it that the victims are only subjected to physical maladies and not usurpation of their belongings? VERY few of these attacks have preceded theft. The latest stain cast upon our brethren, involving a brazen assault on a Gurudwara hits the nail on the head—The Attacks Are Racist In Nature.
New Delhi, too, cannot do very much beyond just having conciliatory conversations. As a sovereign country of remarkable self esteem, Australia cannot be held by the scruff of its neck and be made to do things. The Foreign Ministry has done its bit. Mr. Krishna himself was in Melbourne last year to convey to Mr. Rudd the unacceptability of the deeds. The Indian Embassy in Australia too has been on its toes, responding instinctively to every bit of bad news coming in from the blood stained sidewalks of famous Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth or Tasmania.
Ironically, the predicament cannot find its solution in the Australian government either. It finds its origin in the minds of the cannibalistic, antagonistic blokes seeking to malign for racial glory. Barbaric acts of this kind are actually inadvertent indicators of how much we’ve travelled through the ages intellectually. Yet, we’re reminded once in a while in this kind of a fashion as to how misplaced a misplaced mind could be in our current times. We’re supposed to have moved on from the Spartans and Hitler. Even the faintest shadows of those times don’t make a pretty picture. The current one is detestable. Agreed again with the argument that the nation cannot be branded racist for the misdemeanours of a few. But that is the way it is. People do not feel secure go to Pakistan. Why? Are you certain the guy receiving you at the airport will pin bullets into your chest? Will your cab driver blow the car up? Surely not. It is just the reputation of the land, unfortunately the most pleasured inhabitat of undesirable men and women. Like Red Rot in Sugarcane, contamination of a modicum blemishes the whole.
But let us not enforce our presence in a land where we’d be welcomed with razor sharp metallic and firm wooden armoury. If brotherhood and humanity do not feature among the respected virtues of the community, then we have no business going there to make ourselves a living. There is no impending need to make ourselves hacked scapegoats for the world to see and learn from. I daresay we have better things to do.
The last time I saw an Australian, he gallantly resisted appropriation and homicide powering the victory of the righteous over the nasty. Wait, it was only a movie.
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