Is India being targeted for its progress as discrimination & violence against Indian students grow in the US and Australia?

I certainly agree with this statement and strongly condemn those attacks on Indians but at the same time I do not want to blow them out of proportion like it is being done in the Indian media. The police chief of Australia's Victoria state - Mr. Overland urged the Indian community to work with police and also said that the composition of the police force should be diverse.

He has also given the following statement: "Some of these crimes are racially motivated; however I also believe that many of the robberies and other crimes of violence are simply opportunistic."

I think that there is very little truth in this statement. At the same time Police say 30% of assaults in Melbourne's western suburbs are against Indians, and it is a disproportionate figure in a city of nearly four million people. That means that the crimes are racially motivated otherwise they would have been spread out and not just targeted towards Indians! It is the responsibility of the Australian government to ensure that Indians feel secure in their country. They should take appropriate steps to curb the violence and severe punitive action should be taken against those who commit such crimes against Indians / Sri Lankans or any community for that matter.

I believe that the Australians and Americans want to safeguard their own interests and do not want Indians competing with them so for a few of the misguided ones lashing out at Indian students is a way of giving vent to accumulated frustration. These feelings of vendetta are rising out of a resentment of the smart outsider in their midst who gives them a challenge in every walk of life. Instead of wreaking havoc on innocent students they should try to come up to mark themselves and hone their skills to prove their mettle. Indian students are recognized and respected all over the world for their hard work and intellect and have a proven track record of success. The bottom line is - Indian students are being discriminated against in the US and Australia because the Americans and Australians are insecure about their capabilities vis-à-vis the Indians.

Would it be too foolhardy to expect a society to be a meritocracy, where people are recognized by their talent and hard work and not by the color of their skin ? The people in these countries feel that their jobs are being encroached upon. One would not have to look too far to see a similar sentiment being echoed - in ' Aamchi Mumbai ' the hard-core orange brigade harbors negative feelings against the people who are not native to Mumbai and come to the ' City of Dreams ' to seek their livelihood. Similarly in US for recruitment there is definitely an anti H1B sentiment. According to the new rules hiring a foreign H1B worker will mean that the company will have to forgo tax benefits. All this I understand to a certain extent - safeguard your own interests by all legitimate means. After all it is your own country. However to work yourself up into a frenzy and attack your brethren from another country is not the mark of a civilized people. I ABHOR THE PEOPLE AND THEIR ACTIONS WHO RESORT TO SUCH CRUEL TACTICS TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES. There are certainly better ways to deal with feelings of anger than to use brutal force.

At the same time the actions of a part do not speak for the whole and should not be misconstrued that way. It is such feelings that create a rift in the society and that is exactly what we have to avoid because that is what the miscreants want. They want to sow feelings of rage and animosity. To sum it I would like to quote Mahatma Gandhi, “An eye for an eye , and soon the whole world is blind ". I do not mean that we should keep mum. In fact the Indian students certainly made their point by staging protests and now the police have to take over the matter as it is their duty to do so. Otherwise Australia will continue to lose out on foreign students as it is already seeing students leaving courses mid-way and going back. The students have lost their precious school year and money for no fault of theirs. Finally I end by stating that the Australian government should reimburse the students in every way possible and give them all kinds of support to establish good faith.

By

Jui K