Australian Media's brazen reply to India

[abo007]

This is the response given by Tim Colebatch, who is the economics editor of one of the leading news papers in Australia, in regards to the foul cry of all the Indian media outlets. Although it doesn't at all justifies the crime against any Indians living in Australia, Indians need to understand that they are not the only nationality living over there. Crime does take place and it does take place against all the nationalities in Australia who are caught by the bad luck. The process of making a preventive mechanism in the form of improved policing and effective laws is always an ongoing process in Australia, just like in India. Here we go:

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In 2007, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau, 32,318 people were murdered in India. Another 3644 were victims of ''culpable homicide'', roughly equating to manslaughter. In a category of its own, 8093 brides or their relatives were killed in ''dowry deaths'' - murdered by greedy grooms and in-laws angry over the amount of dowry paid by the bride's family. And there were a further 27,401 attempted murders.

By contrast, in 2007, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports, 255 people were murdered in Australia. Another 28 were victims of manslaughter, and 246 survived attempted murders. No dowry deaths were recorded.

India, of course, is a very big country. But the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that relative to population, its homicide rate is more than twice that of Australia. It is a country in which violent crime is commonplace - so commonplace that every day more than 100 Indians are murdered by other Indians, yet their TV news channels treat this as humdrum unless it involves some celebrity or unusual features.

Yet when an Indian is murdered overseas, these news channels whip themselves and their viewers into a froth of indignation at the country concerned. How can this happen?, they thunder. How can any civilised nation fail to protect its residents? What kind of racist country is this?

How does this happen? Well, it happens because human beings are imperfect creatures. They can be selfish, they can be hateful, they can enjoy hurting, even killing, other humans. It happens here, it happens in India, it happens everywhere.

Governments can't stop it because they can't control what their citizens do 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Governments can't monitor every suburban park in Melbourne at night to ensure that no teenagers with knives have gathered for an illegal drinking binge. They can't monitor every dark street in India's cities, or every home in its villages, to stop people killing each other.

Australians instinctively know that their parks are not safe places at night, and avoid using them as short cuts. Tragically, Nitin Garg did not know that. And so he has become another victim of our epidemic of alcohol abuse, our tolerance of extreme violence in films and screen games - and yes, of Romper Stomper racism that seems to live on among teenagers in the western suburbs, now directed against Indians instead of Vietnamese.

Does that mean Australia is unsafe? No. Relative to most countries, it is very safe. But you can be unlucky. Like Nitin Garg, you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time - and come up against the worst characteristics of a society.

This was highlighted in the calm, sensible advisory notice on Tuesday by India's Ministry of External Affairs. It warns intending students of the rise in violent attacks on the streets of Melbourne. But it notes that these are occurring all over Melbourne ''without any discernible pattern or rationale behind them . . . often accompanied by verbal abuse, fuelled by alcohol or drugs''. The offenders are ''mainly young people in their teens or early 20s''.

Importantly, the ministry points out that most Indian students ''have a positive experience of living and studying in Australia''. So rather than urging Indians not to come here, it urges them to take ''certain basic precautions'': don't travel alone late at night, and try to stick to ''well-lit, populated areas'', conceal expensive items and tell others where you're going.

It is street-smart survival-kit stuff, as relevant in Delhi or Mumbai as Melbourne. And thank God for some common sense after all the hyperventilating by the humbugs on India's news channels or by the Minister of External Affairs, S.M. Krishna, who called the murder a ''heinous crime against humanity''.

Well, yes. But what of the 32,318 murders, 3644 culpable homicides and 8093 dowry deaths committed in his own country in 2007? Are they not equally ''heinous crimes against humanity''? What is Mr Krishna doing about them? What are the Indian TV networks doing about the huge death toll of Indians killed in India itself (where the annual road toll is now tipped to reach 150,000)?

The networks don't have to make a direct comparison. Urban Delhi spills into the state of Haryana, which is relatively well-off and with a population slightly larger than Australia's. In 2007, Haryana had 1252 homicides/manslaughters/dowry deaths, compared with 283 in Australia. More people were murdered in Haryana over dowries than in Australia for all causes.

Why aren't India's TV networks campaigning against the epidemic of death all around them? Why does it take a murder of an Indian overseas to stir their moral outrage?

Were they equally outraged 10 years ago when Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burnt alive in their car by Hindu extremists in Orissa? Or in 2004 when Australian tourist Dawn Griggs was robbed, raped and murdered by two taxi drivers after arriving late at night at Delhi airport?

Those murders don't mean India is unsafe for Australians. Rather, we all need to be wary, wherever we are. This time last year, I was in India with the family on holiday, and the worst danger we faced was trying to cross the road. I hope Indians thinking of studying in Australia listen to their diplomats, not to their TV humbugs.

[rphaniraj]

It is very true.

The other day, we have the incident of a tamilnadu policeman lying in a pool of blood, crying for help. Nobody, including two state ministers who passed by that road, bothered to help. This is the value of life in india.

This is the real " one tight slap" on the media too. A deserved one. Instead of concentrating on real issues, they just tend to create hype over certain incidents, just to please their western masters and national political godfathers.

Truly, why no indian channel has asked these questions. Because it will expose the weakness and incompetence of their masters.

Tim Colebatch is not so and hence he asked the questions.

While strongly condemning the incidents of violence against all humans irrespective of caste sex and ethnicity, we should also work with mature mind to find a solution to this and prevent organised and targeted crime. At the same time we should also be cautious before branding. the media should exercise objectivity rather than sensationalising.

[optandon]

The above post is out of context and irrelevant. It is abundantly clear now that there is an organised conspiracy to target only indian students. After the death of a student from Punjab who was brutally murdered there is today another incident of attempt to murder by burning alive an indian who was parking his car.The shameless Australian authorities instead to taking quick and effective steps to contain the racially motivated violence are trying to lightly pass it on as normal crimes in a big city. How will they react if similar incidents occur in big cities of India against Australian citizens?

[abo007]

What RPhaniraj has said is absolutely right... Indian media doesn't ask any questions about the problems and deaths in India because it exposes the weakness and incompetence of their masters... that's what it is.

I am not sure about how Optandon finds it out of context because even in the latest incident, there was no evidence that this Indian man was being followed and then attacked because of his racial origin.

I have lots and lots of friends in Melbourne and they are enjoying their life there without any fear to step out in open and do their daily business. So it's hard for me to link the attack with the racial origin issue and make it a racist attack.

What might also have happened is because they are getting more publicity by attacking Indians now, these culprits who were unaware of this publicity previously might have started to focus on Indians more often... thanks to Indian media's wits....

Australia is a home for people from all the countries that exist in the world today. There are like 200 countries if I am not wrong and people from all over the world are living here happily.

Crime has taken place against all of these nationalities in Australia, but what I have noticed is that the media from no other nation, that's right, no other nation in the world has ever thought and published that the attacks that took on their own nationals in Australia were due to racial reasons. No other media, except Indian media has come up with this... one should ask why....

I am also not sure why Indian media is only targeting Australia. I mean come on...

In United States so many Indians are gunned down after home invasions. But it was never a racial attack for Indian media. In Bangladesh, so many Hindu families suffered atrocities, but it was rather never discussed by Indian media.

What Indian media doesn’t understand that they are raising hatred amongst all other nationalities in Australia against the Indians because only Indians seem to be taking it as a racist attacks? All other nationalities in Australia may be thinking, are these Indians so special that they get all these publicity when crime also does take place against us as well…

Instead of helping Indians in Australia, Indian media is making their life harder…

[optandon]

Thanks to Indian media that they are informing the indian masses about the dirty racial mindset of the Australians and the dangers our brilliant young students face in that country.But for the Media our government would not have realised the gravity of sitution. The racism of kangaroos has been visible in walks of life. Let us not forget the Kangaroo Cricket players behaviour and their racist remarks.

[abo007]

With optandon's logic, every foreign girl raped in Goa and other parts of India should start calling Indian racist...

Indian media is the problem and not the solution of the problem. If Indian media starts thinking, most of the problems will be solved...