India, Indian Media and Indian Issues

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MP Ravindra Gaikwad should be charged, arrested and suspended from Parliament 

Sydney, 24 March, 2017

img_2431

Ravindra Gaikwad MP

https://www.google.com.au/amp/www.firstpost.com/india/shiv-sena-mp-ravindra-gaikwad-attacks-air-india-staffer-with-slipper-over-ticket-row-3348932.html/amp

Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra, Ravindra Gaikwad is in news. He allegedly abused, manhandled and physically assaulted Air India employee onboard an Air India plane at IGI Airport, New Delhi, Thursday, 23 March, 2017. Apparently, he was upset that he had to travel Pune-Delhi in economy Class. He refused to deplane at Delhi. When AI staffer requested him to do so, he was assaulted. News reports are stating that the AI plane did not have any business class as it was an all-economy class plane.

This MP, when interviewed by the media, brazenly admitted the assault and refused to introspect and apologize. He justified the attack. Shiv Sena Party has asked for an explanation. Lok Sabha (Parliament) speaker has refused to take any action on Suo Moto basis, even though this news is literally in every newspaper.

There is a huge uproar against MP’s behavior. A FIR (First Information Repirt) has been lodged with Delhi Police.

Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Jet Airways, GoAir and Vistara airlines have placed Mr Gaikwad in a no-fly list, which is a good beginning.

That is not enough. Further actions are warranted.

1. Lok Sabha Speaker, Sumitra Mahajan, should initiate a disciplinary action. He should be suspended from Lok Sabha.

2. He should be ordered to undergo anger management course.

3. Delhi Police should review the video, conduct a thorough investigation and charge Mr Gaikwad. Nobody has any right to break the law. Nobody is above Law.

Dr Yadu Singh

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This is not enough.

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What Indians in Australia expect from the Modi Govt

 

 
 
 

The new government should be proactive in considering the interests and welfare of the Indian community down under.

It is not a hyperbole to say that a new era has dawned in India with the swearing-in of the Modi Government on Monday, 26 May, 2014.

A decisive, “can do” leader, Sri Narendra Modi, is the Prime Minister. Indians, not just in India but around the world, are confident that things will change for the better and the Indian economy will grow rapidly.

People have expectations from the new government. While people have a wide variety of expectations, which they want the Modi Govt to deliver, there are some common themes in their expectations. Based on my interactions with many Indians in Australia, and based on my own thinking, there are a few things that people expect the new government to consider.

Prime Minister’s visit to Australia: There has not been any state visit by an Indian PM to Australia after the late Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s visit in 1980s. PM Modi should accept the invitation from Australia to schedule a state visit to Australia this year itself. Several Australian PMs have already visited India, but a reciprocal visit by an Indian PM is yet to happen. There should be time for the PM to interact with the community in at least one, but preferably two, major cities. The G20 summit is scheduled to happen in Brisbane on November 15 and 16, 2014. This will be a perfect opportunity for the Indian PM’s long overdue official visit to Australia too.

Genuine dual citizenship: This has been discussed and debated for long. There is an almost universal demand that overseas Indians be given a right to hold genuine dual citizenship with voting and property rights, if the country of their citizenship has no issue with this and if there are no security issues with granting dual citizenship to any particular overseas Indian. After all, Australia, USA, UK, NZ and many other developed as well as developing countries already offer this facility.

Visa on arrival for Australian citizens: Australian citizens, like many others including New Zealanders, should get the same visa-free arrival facilities in India. If this is not the case at present, it should be implemented without further delay.

Black money in overseas banks: Genuine, proactive and effective steps should be taken to tackle this menace and bring the money back to India within 12 months. No favour should be given to anyone irrespective of who they are or what connections they have. The decision to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for this purpose is good.

Effective anti-corruption body: A group of 10-15 people from civil society including judges, eminent jurists and overseas Indians (if possible) should be asked to review the Lok Pal Act, passed by the Lok Sabha earlier in the year, and suggest steps to rectify weakness to make it an effective corruption fighting body. This should be completed in the next 12 months.

The PM’s global Overseas Indians Advisory body: The PM should revamp his Global Advisory Body, constituted by the previous PM. People in it should be those who have significant presence and influence in their countries. The habit of Indian diplomats recommending non-descript and non-influential people for this body should eliminated.

Country specific Overseas Indian Advisory body: Countries with significant overseas Indian population (Australia is certainly one such country) should have an advisory body of not more than 10 people, which can be used for consultations and other advisory purposes, not only by the local GOI authorities/agencies, but also the relevant authorities/agencies in India.

Annual dialogue between Indian and Australian leaders: PMs, Foreign Affairs Ministers and Defence Ministers should hold annual meeting/dialogue, with venues for such meeting/dialogue alternating between India and Australia.

Free Trade Agreement (FTA): The pace of the discussions and negotiations should be accelerated so that FTA can be concluded by the end of 2015.

Bilateral Nuclear Trade negotiations: The pace of the discussions and negotiations should be accelerated with the goal to conclude it by the 30 June, 2015.

Bilateral and multi-lateral defence exercises between India and Australia: India and Australia should work actively to enhance their defence & strategic relations bilaterally and multilaterally in the pattern agreed prior to the 2007 Rudd Govt in Australia.

Hindi teachings in Australian Universities: To increase India’s soft power and increase the numbers of India-literate Australians, India should consider funding such teaching courses in some select Universities in Australia.

Facilitations of Australian Universities and TAFE to have campuses in India: Many Australian institutions are ranked quite highly in various world Universities ranking systems. Collaborations in this field should be actively facilitated and encouraged, following a pragmatic and win-win module.

Indian Consulate in Brisbane: Queensland is an important state for Indian investment. Indian business houses like the Adani group have an important and a significant presence in this state. It is important to have an Indian Consulate in Brisbane.

India House or Indian Cultural Centre in major capital cities: The Indian community has grown significantly in Australia. It is increasingly felt that such centres are required, at least in Sydney and Melbourne. While some funding will be raised locally, a significant part of the funds should come from Indian Govt. Govt of India (GOI) Funds, if any, allocated for something of this nature to be established in the Indian Consulate premises in Sydney CBD should be reviewed and re-allocated for a centre of this nature in areas like Parramatta or Blacktown, where the Indian community has a substantial presence. Sydney CBD is not a practical or appropriate site for an Indian Cultural Centre.

Overseas Indians’ property in India: Many overseas Indians are seeing that their properties are illegally occupied and face threats to their safety when they visit India. Court cases go on for extended periods of time. IPC should be amended to tackle this menace.

Interactions between GOI agencies and Indian Australian community: It is often felt that GOI authorities in Australia do not interact with people sufficiently, thus leading to a communication gap. It is a common experience that there is a significant gap between what we expect and what is delivered. Steps should be implemented to improve the situation.

Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs visit to Australia: With approx. 500,000 people of Indian heritage in Australia, a biennial visit of Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs (The Hon Sushma Swaraj) or her deputy, The Hon Gen (Retd) V K Singh, should be included in the official GOI travel calendar. This will help facilitate interactions with the community and facilitate Overseas Indians’ investment in India.

Streamlined grievance redressal mechanism for Overseas Indians: Overseas Indian Affairs ministry has often not been very helpful and help has often not come in a timely fashion due to excessive bureaucratic influences. This should be reviewed and streamlined.

Exchanges between Academicians and civil Society leaders: We need regular bilateral exchange visits of academics, journalists, leaders and civil society leaders. This will help improve relations between the two countries. The scope and numbers should be increased.

This is our wish list, which we believe is doable, not difficult and will provide multiple benefits to various stake-holders, including India.

Dr Yadu Singh/Sydney/13th June, 2014

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This was originally published in Indian Sun News magazine, Sydney on 10th June, 2014.  http://www.theindiansun.com.au/top-story/indians-australia-expect-modi-govt/

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Ashton Kutcher Video, portraying “Raj” from Bollywood is funny, but not offensive!

Ashton Kutcher at Time 100 Gala

Ashton Kutcher at Time 100 Gala (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ashton Kutcher’s funny video portraying “Raj” from Bollywood: http://youtu.be/DLdobzj_9_I Not sure what is the fuss about?

Above is my tweet on Ashton Kutcher’s funny video. It is quite hilarious, indeed. Do watch it.

There is quite a bit of fuss which some people have created about a video, in which Hollywood actor, Ashton Kutcher, portrayed “Raj” from Bollywood, with brown make-up, Sherwani , moustache, and accent. I thought he did try to look authetic as an “Indian”. It was all very funny.

I did not see anything offensive in it and not sure why people should take offence to it. Ashton was not abusing India, Indians, Indian beliefs, Indian culture or Indian religious practices.

Come on people, lighten up and learn to enjoy the funny side of life!

Yadu Singh/Sydney/04th May, 2012

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Community politics by Indian diplomats not acceptable!

I have been of double mind about writing this post for a while. I have raised this issue in Canberra on 17th Dec, 2011 when I participated in the meeting of Indian community leaders, organised by High Commission of India. High Commissioner of India in Canberra, Consul Generals of India in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth along with many other diplomatic staff and about 200 community leaders/media people were present in this meeting.  I expressed my strong objections against politics by one Indian diplomat.

So, what is it that I am concerned about?

Guess no more. This is about community politics from one Indian Diplomat in regards to Uranium decision by ALP on 4th Dec, 2012 when ALP National Conference passed a motion to support sale of Uranium to India.

Many from Indian Australian community  had raised the Uranium issue with political leaders. It includes various community groups including ourselves and many individuals. Uranium has been in the minds of Indian Australians. We all worked to get ALP reverse its policy to ban Uranium trade with India.

I wrote about it in the Blog posts http://tinyurl.com/7bytnbo, http://tinyurl.com/2eumejb, and http://tinyurl.com/8yawduc since 2009, unlike others who appeared in the scene only recently.

Despite all this, I believe Indian Australian community had only a minor role, if any, in this decision.

Few individuals, however, with the active support of a Member of Parliament from Western Sydney had tried to claim credit for this decision.  This Western Sydney MP has many Indian Australian voters in the constituency and will need support from them in the election in 2013. This MP has been actively working on the plan to “promote” one of these two and a few more from the MP’s political party to  be recognised as Indian community leaders for obvious reasons. I am neither against this MP nor such people generally but I have issues with “manufactured” or “parachuted” leadership of anyone by anyone.

Unfortunately, a senior Indian diplomat got involved in this politics too.  I will explain it a bit later. A Link  http://tinyurl.com/848v5b7 from an unknown Indian newspaper was sent to every one by an individual as a certificate of his claim that “he delivered Uranium to India”.

They were even credited to shape the foreign policy of Australia!

Even “Gandhi” connection was evoked indirectly, ignoring the fact that these gentlemen are just pushing the barrows for their political party!

This is of course totally ludicrous and laughable.

Talking about grandstanding, you can’t get a better example!

This claim is incorrect too. This question was directly asked from Prime Minister by a journalist from Indian Down Under newspaper recently. She did not confirm it at all. Please visit The Indian Down Under newspaper  [www.indiadownunder.com.au ], edited by Nina Badhwar here http://tinyurl.com/7pa5rp7 page 9.

Australia decided to sell Uranium to India because of;

1. its national interest as it was not a smart policy to deny Uranium to India but sell it to China, thus damaging Australia-India relations when India has so much strategic importance in Asia Pacific region

2. active encouragement by USA-very important factor [confirmed by many MPs]

3. pressure and support from Australian Think Tanks and Press-Lowy Institute and The Australian newspaper

4. India’s impeccable nonproliferation records

5. Coalition parties [Liberal and National Parties] supporting such trade since 2007

It definitely was not due to a few individuals who are claiming to have “delivered Uranium to India”, just like Mahatma Gandhi delivered freedom to India!

Any such claim actually lowers the office of Prime Minister and must never be repeated or permitted.

I do not believe Indian community in Australia had a major role in it. This was the opinion of the top Indian diplomat in Canberra too. We all made noises at every available forum but still, it was not instrumental in this decision. I asked a few MPs and even Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson about it. They too were broadly in agreement with the points I had listed earlier. They laughed when I told them about the claims for credit by a few individuals from Indian community. They denied it was the case.

Indeed, we all did what we believed was our duty towards India, Australia and India-Australia relations. Taking Olympic motto, we all participated in it. We should be proud of that too. It would of course be wrong, inappropriate and unwarranted for anyone  from our community to claim a sole or exclusive credit for it.

Out of sudden, all Indian ethnic newspapers in Sydney and others were sent a link http://tinyurl.com/848v5b7 from an unknown Indian newspaper “Express Buzz”, which is not linked at all with or a part of reputed Indian national newspaper, Indian Express. “Express Buzz” article quotes an anonymous senior Indian Diplomat in Australia, attributing credits to two Indians for Uranium decision. Ms Devirupa Mitra, who is of Bengali background, of Express Buzz online newspaper gave a clear indication of this diplomat being male, thus ruling out High commissioner, Mrs Sujatha Singh. I had a discussion with High Commissioner about it and know for sure that it was not her who was quoted in this article. I contacted Ms Devirupa Mitra in India and asked about the veracity of the claims and the identity of the diplomat but she declined to reveal the source. I sensed her feeling of being “used” in the politics. She encouraged me to write to her when I asked her to retract the article. I did not write to her but will be sending this post to her.

I have no doubt that this Indian diplomat “arranged” with Ms Devirupa Mitra for this story to be published in this paper. No other newspaper in India has published this type of story. This was an attempt to “manufacture” and “promote” leadership of “some” people in our community.

Some here in Sydney have mistaken “Express Buzz” for “Indian Express” newspaper, which of course is untrue. “Express Buzz” has no link with “Indian Express” newspaper. I hope, Indian newspapers in Sydney can check facts before printing factually incorrect stories, sent to them by interested people.

This senior Indian diplomat was so blind in his politicking that he ignored the work by anybody else. We have been raising Uranium matter for the last 4 years. I raised it in our Australia Day and Indian Republic Day function in 2010 where heaps of ALP and Liberal pollies were present.  Senior Coalition leader, Joe Hockey, shadow treasurer declared the policy of Coalition to sell Uranium to India, putting ALP leaders on the spot light. This was the first such public announcement in our community functions. I urged ALP leaders to do the same as Coalition has done.We raised it in every function we organised and we raised it with every politician we met. I wrote Blog posts on it [see my Blog for details] and wrote an opinion piece http://tinyurl.com/6s7d7dx  on pages 40-41 in Mining and Investment Australia Journal which is a reputed journal. I wrote two opinion pieces in FPRC Journal [Foreign Policy Research Centre, New Delhi, India], highlighting Uranium issue http://tinyurl.com/7dec8mu .

Many others have done their bits all over Australia. This was all ignored by this diplomat in his blind desire to promote and glorify his friends. There are many theories and possibilities about the reasons for this promotion.

Both the individuals, who this diplomat gave credits to, are members of Unions and are from ALP. I must clarify here that there is nothing wrong in being a member of any Union or ALP. That is not my concern as to which party they belong to, but I have serious issues when diplomats try to glorify them without any basis or truth, ignoring equal or superior claims for such accolade or credit for others. This is indeed wrong, unethical and dishonest.

Both these individuals are close to one Indian diplomat for various reasons.

Both these individuals are from Sydney.

So, my questions are;

1. Who is this senior Indian Diplomat?

2.Why is he playing this game?

3. Is it not political interference in our community?

4. Is he not playing politics in our community by “promoting”, glorifying and “propping” up two community members who are very close to him?

5. Is it not unwarranted, objectionable and offensive for a diplomat to play this type of politics?

6. What benefits he is getting? What is in it for him?

No Indian Diplomat is owning up these false claims, when challenged. And challenged they were quite forcefully, both privately and publicly!

So typical for Diplomats!

A little more info before you made your own mind as to who this senior Indian diplomat is. There are 4 senior Indian diplomats in Australia.

1. High Commissioner in Canberra, Mrs Sujatha Singh-Served for 4 years and had just left for the posting in Germany. She is not this “senior diplomat” quoted in the paper.

2. Consul General in Sydney, Mr Amit Dasgupta-here since 2009.

3. Consul General in Melbourne, Dr S K Behera-relatively new arrival in Australia.

4. Consul Gneral in Perth, Mr M. Subbarayudu-very new arrival in Australia.

I have spoken with many people from our community and they all have expressed their disgust with politics played by one of the senior Indian diplomats. This is not within the definition of the core jobs of Indian diplomats. They are to stay away from community politics. They should not promote or prop up any community member [s]. Just in case you are wondering, I must clarify that it is not an one off activity.

Indian diplomats must stay away from community politics, avoid playing favouritism game and conduct themselves in an impartial manner. If they are not careful, they risk harming the prestige of the position they occupy in Australia.

If not heeded, this might well lead to complaints to the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, Ministers in India and MPs in Indian Parliament.

After all, Indian diplomats are not the only who can do politics. We too know how to do politics!

Indian diplomats are here to represent Govt of India and help Indian Australians, when needed, but definitely not to do politics in our community!

Dr Yadu Singh/Sydney/16th March, 2012

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India wins. Thank you, Anna Hazare!

Anna Hazare and his fast unto death at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi has attracted the attention of Indians all over the world. Almost every friend of mine in Australia has heard about it. The messages of support to this cause have been spread by Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and emails. Social media has again proven to be a powerful tool.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/govt-will-introduce-lokpal-bill-in-monsoon-session-pm/773913/2

Anna Hazare was not alone in this protest. Shanti Bhushan, Retd Supreme court Justice, Santosh Hegde, Swami Agnivesh, Baba Ram Dev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Mallika Sarabhai, Kiran Bedi and RTI activist, Arvind Kejriwal were all with him. Millions of Indians were supporting him and numbers were growing by the minute. India media also supported him in this fight against corruption.

As we all know, corruption has become a menace and a massive problem. You might recall Rajiv Gandhi saying famously that only 19 Paise out of the 100 Paise from the Govt money was reaching those who the money was meant for and rest was gobbled by the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. It was 19 Paise in 1980s and I am afraid it might not even be 10 Paise now. Something had to be done!

Our great social activist, Anna Hazare, and the whole India have achieved a massive win. They have forced a backdown from the Govt of India which has agreed to introduce a “Lok Pal Bill” in the Parliament by 30th June, 2011. This Bill/Act will have significant powers to combat corruption in India. Govt’s initial Bill was not good enough and was therefore rejected by Anna Hazare and the  Indian people. http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/why-hazare-others-oppose-govt-s-lokpal-bill-2010-96609

The Bill will be drafted by a 10 member committee, to be chaired by Minister Pranab Mukerjee and co-chaired by Mr Shanti Bhushan, a very reputed Jurist. Mr Bhushan, one may recall, is the same Barrister who fought a case against Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi  in the High Court, Allahabad, which led to the judgement that her election was invalid.

The Lok Pal Bill will spare no one from corruption and will include the provision of an outcome within a period of 12 months. Prime Minister, Ministers, MPs, bureaucrats and parties are all covered. http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/what-is-the-jan-lokpal-bill-why-its-important-96600

Lok Pal insitution will be chaired by people who are selected on merits and without political favour. It will be totally independent.

I am hoping that it will be more or less like ICAC [Independent Commission agaist Corruption] in NSW. http://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/

I am very happy that Indian Govt was compelled to listen to the demands of the Indian People without use of force or bullets.

That democracy is thriving in India is beyond doubt.

What has been achieved is nothing but a milestone in the history of India!

Having said that, there is a word of caution which we must not ignore. Some concerns have been raised about the accountability of the so-called “civil society”. “Who are they responsible and accountable to” has been asked. We need to remember what Edmund Burke, a famous member of the House of Comons, had said before. ” This cynicism about politics and, by extension, Parliament only makes you think ill of that very institution which, do what you will, you must religiously preserve, or you must give over all thoughts of being a free people”.

In our system, we must not try to create an alternatives to the Parliament. Indian Parliament [SANSAD] must remain the ultimate source of power. It can’t be bullied or undermined by anyone. Parliament must remain supreme but must be able to listen to people, gauge their mood and deliver things which the country needs. It will undoubtedly have more chance to do so if our Parliamentarians are of superior quality-morally, intellectually and spiritually. That brings us to the issue of the process of election to the Parliament. This process needs to be reformed, improved and protected from corrupting influence of casteism, communalism and money-ism.

India had witnessed a successful reform movement which has been termed a mini-revolution today but we need many more revolutions to get to a stage when we all can say “Mera Bharat Mahan or My India is great!” with utmost joy, satisfaction and pride.

Corruption in India must be eradicated or at least controlled. The first stage has been successful but it would require a long and hard struggle to reach the final result.

Lok Pal will be a giant step in getting the result.

Dr Yadu Singh/Sydney/09th April, 2011

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Australia-India relations and the issues of Indian students:IBN Live documentary [Hindi]

http://khabar.ibnlive.in.com/news/35809/2

Smita Sharma, a senior journalist from IBN Live channel was in Australia recently. She has made this comprehensive documentary. She did a good job and covered the issues of Indian students in Australia and sought the comments of Indian Australians who have been here for a long period. Ravi Bhatia of AIBC, Vasan Srinivasan of FIAV, Anupam Sharma and myself were interviewed for this documentary. She managed to speak with some actors from a Bollywood movie  on this topic [a Mahesh Bhatt movie which was being shot in Australia at that time] too with the help from Anupam Sharma.

It is in HINDI. It is in multiple segments.

It is a very balanced documentary. It is definitely worth a watch.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/13rd July, 2009

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John Howard should be renominated for ICC vice president from Oceania.

I am outraged with the stupid comments in a section of Indian media in regards to Mr John Howard’s nomination as the Vice President from Oceania.

TimesNow’s Arnab Goswami and this pompous character named Suhel Seth are on it again. They just love doing “Australia-bashing”. “Australia is a racist society” is their Mantra. Their coverage on students’ issue was pathetic, imbalanced and hysterical. I believe quite strongly that they are themselves racist against Australia.

Why are they not using their brain, if they have it, to analyse an issue objectively. Australia is not a racist nation and its laws do not discriminate people based on race, gender or religion. I agree with Bishan Singh Bedi who disagreed with these two jokers and asked people to see things in a proper perspective and with objectivity.

Here is a link of one of the reporting on this matter.

http://australianetworknews.com/stories/201007/2942781.htm?desktop

Racism is everywhere. India is no exception. Australia is no exception either. Australia is indeed a successful multi-cultural country.

Guys, racism is bad and abominable but reverse racism is no better. I hope people can understand this fact.

People, please see this ICC and John Howard issue with a proper perspective. ICC position of VP is given by rotation. No election takes place for this position. VP becomes the President in 2 years. This year, it was the turn of Oceania to nominate its candidate. Oceania [Australia and NZ] nominated Mr Howard as its candidate. Cricket Australia and NZ Cricket had a vigorous selection process and the outcome was Mr Howard as their joint candidate.

ICC board really has no option but to accept a candidate who was recommended by the region whose turn it was to do so.

There is no doubt that it is India which is playing games on this matter. Sharad Pawar, the current president does not want a strong personality as the VP. That is the bottom line here. This is the reason why they have rejected Mr Howard’s nomination as the VP and asked Oceania to renominate a candidate by 31st Aug.

Yes, India generates 70% of the money for ICC but it is not proper for any one to shred any organisation into pieces just because some one can do it. ICC must stop bringing more disgrace and shame to itself.

It is entirely appropriate for Australian PM, Julia Gillard and NZ PM, John Key, to come out openly in support of their common candidate, Mr Howard for ICC VP position.

John Howard is Oceania’s candidate. He is my candidate. He should be our candidate.

It’s about time that ICC bullies are confronted assertively. Australia and NZ will do so by renominating him.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/6th July, 2010

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A Blog & a brilliant editorial on Visa Capping Bill 2010:a must read!

Yadu Singh dryadusingh

http://tinyurl.com/2b8zvkz Visa capping bill 2010 is a disgrace-says this Blog.

I am enclosing an editorial  by Pawan Luthra, Editor, Indian Link newspaper. He has written a very pertinent and a brilliant piece on this matter. Thank you, Pawan.

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“The Visa capping issue

… is becoming the international students’ worst nightmare, says PAWAN LUTHRA

Minister Chris Evans could have the power to effectively order potential migration applications to be declared null and void if the Migration Amendment (Visa Capping) Bill is passed. This means that applicants will not be given a chance to appeal this decision and will have to leave the country within 28 days. With the Coalition remaining quiet on this and a minimal fuss from the Greens, chances of this becoming law are strong. Those most affected are potential migrants, a number of whom are students who may have studied in Australia for over two years. They have contributed thousands of dollars to the Australian economy, been model guests in this country and, in the future, could do Australia proud.

But now they’re becoming victims this game of politics masterminded by the Labor government which has been caught flat footed from the events in the student community since the past year. It is a transparent tactic of the Labor government, seeking to deflect focus from its refugee policies. It is easier to lay blame for the expansion of the student and migration market on the Howard government, rather than work to capture this special resource of talent already existing in the country. Caught within this political crossfire are the hopes and aspirations of thousands who have been waiting for over two years to have their visa applications processed and who now may have jobs, partners, children and other assets. They may have to abandon all this, as the possibility of being thrown out of the country within 28 days of Minister Evans decision imminently looms.

The Migration Amendment (Visa Capping) Bill 2010 would enable the minister to cap the number of visas issued in a given year to applicants with “specified characteristics.” This could include chefs or hairdressers or any other occupation. Once the designated annual cap is reached – which could conceivably be set at zero – all outstanding visa applications with the same characteristics will be terminated. So its wasted dollars for someone who has spent thousands in getting their health checks, skills assessed and qualifications recognised. Yes, the visa application fee will be refunded, but all other costs will be borne by the applicant. This does not include the cost of education which the applicant may have embarked upon in Australia with a dream of applying for residence based on the general intent of the laws at that time.

What the Labor government is doing isn’t wrong, but the sentiment is indeed immoral.

As depicted in the famous Australian movie, The Castle, Daryl Kerrigan fought a property development company which wanted to acquire his house to extend the airport. In the climax, the barrister representing Kerrigan said that it was not a house which the property developer was acquiring; it was a home of dreams and memories. Similarly, a migration application can be terminated abruptly and without notice, but it is at the priceless cost of destroying the dreams and ambitions of thousands of potential migrants. It is a heartrending sight and their despair is palpable.

Now is the time for community leaders to speak up and fight for the rights of these students. Public statements and petitions have been made by well intentioned individuals; but it is time that our Indian associations take this cause forward, in a test of true and vocal leadership. Visa capping in its current form is wrong and this message needs to be sent, loud and clear, to Canberra and the Rudd government.”

Editorial by Pawan Luthra

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Similarly, Anuj Kulshrestha, Editor, Hindi Gaurav, has written a great piece on this matter. He has included comments from some of the leaders from “Friends of International students” with his write-up. Thank you, Anuj.

http://www.hindigaurav.com/community-news-0-65

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Indian Sub-Continent Times [ http://www.theistimes.com/mr-evans-its-democracy-not-anarchy/ ] has written a great article on this issue too. Thank you, Ashok Kumar.

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Please click www.fairgo4internationalstudents.org/ and support the petition against this Bill.

“United we win, divided we lose”.

Regards

Yadu Singh/Sydney/28th June, 2010

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SBS Radio [Hindi]:my interview on Visa capping bill 2010.

http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hindi/player/page/day/Sunday/time/09/channel/3

It starts at 35.15 and goes until 45.oo minutes.

Ms Kumud Merani was the interviewer.

This covers the Australian Migration Amendment [Visa capping] Bill 2010. Some people have called this Bill as “cap and cull” Bill.

Please see a detailed post on this Bill in my Blog.

Yadu Singh, Sydney/13th June, 2010

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Canadian High Commission in New Delhi:Why is it behaving in an anti-India manner?

Recent reports on the comments made by Visa officers in Canadian High Commission in New Delhi while rejecting Visa to Indians from security agencies like Police, Border Security Force [BSF], intelligence Bureau [IB] and Army are grossly objectionable. Visa officers have branded Indian security agencies as human right violators and made grossly offensive comments. Their comments were for the whole agencies, not for a specific individual. One must note that there is no court decision against these security officers, proving them the criminals or violators of human rights. In the eyes of Canadian High Commission, they were criminals as they were from Indian security agencies and worked in border areas like Jammu & Kashmir. They were therefore not suitable for a Canadian Visa. What a ridiculous and stupid argument! Which planet are the Canadian High Commission officials living in?

Here are some of the links.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Canada-mum-Indo-Canadians-blame-anti-India-bureaucracy/articleshow/5983969.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Canada-deeply-regrets-visa-row-with-India/articleshow/5984517.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Canada-bars-Lt-Gen-over-JK-record/articleshow/5978905.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India-proud-of-armed-forces-address-visa-issue-Krishna-to-Canada/articleshow/5982053.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Visa-row-India-to-retaliate-if-Canada-does-not-respond/articleshow/5981300.cms
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/canada-deeply-regrets-visa-row-with-india/624893/

Indian security agencies have to deal with insurgents from inside and outside. They do a very difficult job in very difficult circumstances. They work within the boundary of rules and are under the overall direction of the civilian Govt of India which is a democratic country. Indian army and other security agencies are highly disciplined forces, not like some private renegade militia.

While issuing Visa is a prerogative of Canada but making objectionable comments is simply unacceptable. Security officers do a difficult job anywhere and Indians are no exception. By no count, they can be equated with criminals.

Canadian High Commission in new Delhi should be openly reminded that the conduct of the security agencies of some of the western countries is appalling. Abu Gharib prison in Iraq is just one example. Will they refuse Visa or entry permits to USA security officials? Will they go against those who went in Iraq on the pretext of WMD with hardly any evidence and caused severe damage and suffering to people? I am definite that the answers to these questions will be in negative.

Canadian Visa officers’ behaviour is indicative of their double standards and a peculiar western mindset which allows a holier than thou and patronising attitude towards Asian countries in general and India in particular.

Today, Canadian minister for Immigration & citizenship, Jason Kenney, has expressed “deep regrets”  for these comments and has said that Canada has high regards for Indian security agencies. Minister Kenney says [from TOI] that “The government of Canada… deeply regrets the recent incident in which letters drafted by public service officials during routine visa refusals to Indian nationals cast false aspersions on the legitimacy of work carried out by Indian defence and security institutions, which operate under the framework of democratic processes and the rule of law.” It is nice to hear this from Minister Kenney but  is Canada going to reverse its refusal to issue Visa to these security officers?

With what Minister Kenney said, one wonders about who these visa officers are accountable to? Whose policies are they following? How can they make these comments?

I must admit that I found these comments deeply offensive. I am glad that Indian  Home affairs secretary raised these matters with Ministry of External Affairs [MEA] which has taken this up with Canadian High Commission. Reports from India state that Canadian High commissioner was summoned to MEA twice during last week.

My view is that the relevant visa officers must be re-trained, reprimanded or better withdrawn from India. India and Indians must not tolerate their arrogant, disrespectful and unwarranted comments.

India is proud of its security agencies and we must not allow any one to cast aspersion on their work.

If Canada does not reverse its actions, India should refuse Visa to Canada’s security officers.

Enough is enough!

Yadu Singh/Sydney/28th May, 2010

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Terrorist Ajmal Kasab sentenced to death for Mumbai terrorist attacks.

PreviousPausePlayNext

Victorious

Today's PicsMedia personnel greet public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam after Kasab was sentenced to death. [Photo from Indian Express]

Kasab

[Photo by Indian Express]

http://bit.ly/b0m12A

http://tinyurl.com/2fspzqu

The lone Pakistani terrorist, Ajmal Kasab, has been sentenced to death by a Mumbai court today. He was the only terrorist out of 10 who was captured alive. Terrorists caused mayhem in Mumbai on 26/11/08, killing 166 innocent people in cold blood. This terrorist attack was planned and executed by LET  operatives from Pakistan. 9 terrorists were killed by Indian security authorities. Their bodies were not accepted by Pakistan. Initially, Pakistan refused to accept Pakistani nationality of Kasab.

While Kasab awaits the execution of the death sentence, his masterminds and handlers are in Pakistan who need to be prosecuted vigorously.

Will Pakistani Gov, ISI and Pak army ensure that happening?

Hope, it dawns on them that terrorists are posing a serious threat to Pakistan too!

Yadu Singh/Sydney/6th May, 2010

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Community work:what I have done so far.

Updated on 11th April, 2011.

Information

Here is my account about what I have done so far and what I am doing right now.

1. Community work in General:

1.1. Leadership roles in Indian community Medical Associations, Continuing Medical education and Health education of general community.

1.2. Helping poor people from our community ie visitors, overseas patients and Indian students when they are in need of health care in Australia without sufficient financial resources.

1.3. Helping poor students in my district with  scholarships etc.

2. My work as the co-ordinator of the Indian Consul General’s committee on students’ issues:
Indian Consul General’s Community Committee on Students’ Issues, Sydney, NSW was formed at the Indian Consulate on 6th April 2009. It did intensive work and completed its task in a very efficient manner. After accomplishing its mandated task, it dissolved itself at the end of June 2009 and communicated this to the Indian Consulate on 1/7/09.

The committee had Harmohan Walia,Vish Viswanathan, Shubha Kumar, Stanley D’Cruz and Dr Yadu Singh as its members. I was its co-ordinator.

This committee had done following activities;

#met students numerous times.

#organised a students’ forum on 16th May at Strathfield.

#co-organised a students’ forum with UIA in Strathfield on 6th June.

#arranged help to a woman student who was a victim of domestic violence.

#arranged help to 2 women students who were stalked by another Indian co-worker.

#arranged meetings with minister of education, NSW and her senior advisers and students from an aviation school-Work in progress.

#arranged a meeting with the president, NSW upper House [Mr Peter Primrose] and Ms Helen Westwood MLA and students.

#arranged meeting of an aviation school student with consul General [this student gave him his papers].

#arranged a meeting with a community minded lawyer and aviation school students.

#met the mother of a student of an aviation school. This lady’s husband had died only 4 weeks ago due to the serious stress involved in losing the money with the school in Sydney without the required outcome.

#arranged and participated in TV coverage of students’ issues on Channel 7, 9, 10, SBS TV, ABC TV, and Bloomberg.

#participated in the coverage on ABC radio, SBS radio, SBS Hindi radio, 2UE, JJJ, Indian Link radio, Radio UMANG, 2GB radio and SBS Kannada Radio.

#arranged talk-backs on these issues on SBS radio and Radio UMANG [98.5MHZ, Fridays,8-9 PM]-now stopped.

#participated in coverage on SMH, The Australian, Daily Telegraph, other newspapers and AAP.

#participated in the coverage on Indian newspapers in Australia [The Indian, Indian Link, Indus Age, The Indian Sub Continent Times, Indian Down Under].

#participated in TimesNow, NDTV, CNN/IBN, Headlines Today, AajTak and other Indian TV Channels.

#participated in the coverage on main Indian newspapers and PTI.

#involved with some top-grade Australian media programmes with wide audience in getting students’ issues covered.

#arranged funds for the accommodation for the relatives Mr Rajesh Kumar [the petrol bomb victim from Harris Park] within 24 hours.

#met commander Robert Redfern , Parramatta Local area Command of NSW Police several times.

#did what we could do to persuade/help the students when they were on the Harris Park streets for 3 nights.

#participated in the community leaders’ meeting with chairman, Community Relations Commission [CRC] at CRC HQ

#participated in a CRC organised meeting with Indian students at Parramatta RSL.

#participated in the community leaders’ meeting with the Premier, Mr Nathan Rees

#Met Indian Consul General and Consul several times

#helped a prominent Indian TV channel with a documentary on true situation in Australia. One of us [Yadu Singh] was the citizen Journalist.

#discussed and formulated the strategy to solve the problems of our students.

#submitted our strategy to the NSW task force and other relevant authorities.

#provided leadership in the matters relating to Indian students.

#gave our after hours and week-ends for students’ work and provided pastoral care to the needy students.

#provided/facilitated medical help to the needy students/their family members.

#met the visiting Indian journalists at the Consulate.
The committee members were all hard-working people with top-grade integrity. They did not have any conflict of interest in the matters relating to Indian students. None of them were involved in the students’ placement in a school [after taking a commission], running of any such school or running of any business which could have a potential conflict of interest in any manner.

All members worked with full dedication, cohesion and team feeling without any undermining of one another. This itself is a rare thing for an Indian group. We are proud of our work and ourselves.

We appealed to every person from Indian background to stay away from any leadership role if they were involved in any activity which did/could create a conflict of interest in these matters but we did not succeed in this matter.

We raised our voice forcefully against the exploitation of Indian students by some Indian employers.

We also appealed to the Indian newspapers and Radio programmes to ask questions from every leader [on students’ issues] about their involvement in any activity which  created a conflict of interest in those matters. We suggested that the  media should start with the questions on conflict of interests when interviewing those leaders.

3.My work beyond/outside the Consul General’s committee on students:

a. helped the refund of >$12000 to a student of a Flying school.

b. arranged legal assistance to the students from this Flying school from a solicitor in Sydney and Canberra.

c.1. facilitated a good outcome between parties involving VETAB, Flying school and students.

c.2. held several meetings involving VETAB high authorities, the Flying school and students in VETAB and my offices.

d. organised further refunds/savings [including waiving of about $50000f the legal fees in regards to a legal proceedings in the Supreme Court where students had lost their case and costs was awarded against them]] for a Flying school students from ESOS scheme with the help of VETAB, DEEWR and federal education dept which is worth >$250000 . I was the key and the only Indian person in this work for these students. I did this as I felt it was my duty to help students from my community who were feeling powerless in Australian system.

e. held meetings involving a Flying school people, VETAB and students.

f. helped payment of >$2400 to a student which was originally denied by his employer.

g. arranged funding of about $1000 to the family members of the “Petrol bomb” victim.

h. donated $500 to a students association.

i. arranged sponsorship for foods, meeting hall and public liability insurance for a students’ association [worth >$1000].

j. mentoring students for their careers and future in OZ.

k.1. donated $500 to AHIA’s seniors.

k.2. donated $500 to Fiji floods relief fund via International congress of Fiji Indians and organized $2000 donations from other doctors

k.3. donated $500 to Sanatan Arya Pratinidhi Samaj, Sydney.

l. donated a good amount [>$2000] for needy/deserving causes involving victims of earthquakes, accidental deaths, injuries and illnesses.

m.1. helping several students including assault victims for their work comp, treatment and issues involving their parents.

m.2. Liaised with NSW Police high ups in regards to the assaults of 2 Indians in Sydney.

m.3. Advised/mentored several others in regards to the steps they needed to take when they were assaulted.

n. established a benevolent fund for the community with further activities in the process.

o. participated as an active member of the working party with CRC on students including inputs for Z card.

p.1. took leadership role via the media including Indian and Australia media [Chanel 9, SBS, NDTV, Indian ethnic newspapers].

p.2. helped Radio National in making a documentary on students [see details in this BLOG elsewhere].

q. raised the issue of OZ Uranium sale to India during the Australia India Day celebration on 24th Jan, 2010 where several ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLC, and media people were present.

r. helped community members’ relatives/parents including FIJI Indians’ when they needed medical help.

s. helped students with their medical treatment of all types when they needed such help. This included getting a student admitted for the urgent treatment of his Kidney stone trouble which was threatening his Kidney.

t. helping the community members from India and South Asia with a concessional fees structure because they are part of my community [a service worth more than $50000/year].

u. met NSW Premier, VETAB authorities and NSW Education authorities on students’ issues

v. did all this work without any personal benefits or COMMISSIONs unlike some of our “leaders”. SEE my BLOG for more details.

w.1. trying to clean the community leadership and making them accountable.

w.2. Exposed commission taking by some leaders of an Indian community association in Sydney.

x. taking a leadership role against unfair portrayal of Australia as a Racist society by Indian media.

y. mentored medical doctors from India in regards to their training and registration issues including achieving a successful outcome for a house surgeon who was facing exclusion from the medical work due to her unfair treatment in a Sydney hospital. I worked very actively with this young doctor and her supervisors including Hospital administrators to get her into the internship at a different hospital. She passed her assessment and is now working in Sydney.

z.1. many other charity work in India including scholarships for poor students in India.

z.2. running a weekly Radio UMANG [Health radio] programme.

z.3. worked as a catalyst in resolving the issues between Indian consul General, Sydney and some businessmen with a successful outcome.

z.4. took an active and a leading  role in resolving the issues between Indus Age [after a controversial ad] and the community, and achieved a successful outcome [with an apology and a promise to not publish such ads again].

z.5. Formed a community committee [total 10 people in it] against Visa Capping Bill in May 2010 and lobbied with the Gov ministers and Media against this Bill which was very harmful to the students. Worked actively for this committee, visiting community gatherings, temples and Gurdwaras to collect signatures against this Bill. We also met the Immigration minister, Mr Chris Evans, asking him to not proceed with this Bill. See www.fairgo4internationalstudents.org.

z.6. Formed a national organisation called National Council of Indian Australians [NCIA, www.ncia.org.au] with participation from all over Australia [all states and territories representatives].

z.7. Spoke as a lead doctor in the Health Summit, organised by GOPIO, Sydney, educating/informing people on Health matters on 4th Dec, 2010.

z.8. Helped a family locate their son [International student] http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/a-dumped-bike-a-glimpse-on-sydney-stations-cctv-what-happened-to-indian-student-abhijeet-20101006-166rs.html

z.9. Raised $7100 as a team for Qld Flood relief on 28th Jan, 2011.

z.10. Took up the issue of attack on  Sri Mandir temple, Auburn and brought it to the national media.

z.11. Took up the matter involving HINDI in the Australian national draft curriculum-Languages and wrote to ACARA. 

z.12. Campaigned for removal of an incorrect map of India in DIAC website and succeeded.

I have not listed every thing I have done or am doing. Much more is being done presently.

I had to write this down because some of my detractors were making comments like “what has he done for the community”.

Just to let you know that it gives me a sense of satisfaction to do some community work beyond my medical work. 


Yadu Singh/Sydney/22nd November, 2010

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Australia race debate:The enemy within! Hindustan Times [HT] article.

http://tinyurl.com/ycj47cs

This is the article in one of the top newspapers in India [Hindustan Times] by one of the Indian Australians, who lives in Melbourne and is the anchor of the Punjabi programme in SBS radio. Ms Manpreet Singh has done a wonderful write-up. Similar write-ups have been done by me and others through Blogs previously.

This is worth reading.

We need to do introspection to figure out what is happening, where we are going and what we need to do.

Indian students’ matter and its coverage in Indian media [which has often been very imbalanced and hysterical] has created a situation which has been very unfair for the image of Australia. We will need to take an open, assertive and bold stand in this matter as unfair portrayal of Australia by anyone affects all of us including Indian Australians.

We will have to deal with Indian media, specially TimesNow TV channel, and its main contacts in Australia, specially Gautam Gupta, to ensure Indian media stops the nonsense reporting about Australia. It is likely that we will need to interact openly and intensively with the Indian Gov leaders in New Delhi and Indian Gov officials in Australia on these matters.

We can not allow the unfair, injurious and imbalanced portrayal of Australia in India to go on unchallenged!

Best regards

Yadu Singh/Sydney/13th March, 2010

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My interview on NDTV about Australia

http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=1197889 My interview in NDTV about Australia.

http://www.ndtv.com/news/world/indians_in_australia_speak_out_on_attacks.php

Yadu Singh/Sydney/31st Jan, 2010

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Indian students in Australia and India-Australia relations:My article and views.

http://www.foreignpolicy.in/journals_4.html

Inviting your views and comments.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/29th Jan, 2010

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Who is racist-Australia or Indian media?

Look, I agree, the title of this write-up is dramatic and provocative but this is the question which lots of people are asking. A segment of Indian media is calling every crime involving Indians in Australia as racist crime. They don’t even wait for full facts. It is grossly unfair, inappropriate, immature and ,I argue, racist. Everything in Australia is racist and the very same crimes in India are not. Indian media is doing it intentionally with one agenda only. This agenda is to harm Australia’s reputation. They are selectively blind to some crimes but hysterical about certain crimes.

Let me put some examples to illustrate my point of view.

1. Late Nitin Garg’s fatal stabbing: This was the most shocking loss of life in Melbourne. A 21 years old Indian permanent resident was fatally stabbed at 10 PM when he was walking through a park for his work. This was in the Western Suburb of Melbourne which is known for increased crime against people of all types. There was no witness and the park was dimly lit. Full facts have not come out yet. Vic police is investigating. One Indian minister demanded faster speed in the investigation just 2 days after the crime, while ignoring the fact that it took 19 years for the Indian system to deal with SPS Rathore, Ex DGP of Haryana, who had molested a young lady [Ruchika] and  had also harassed her family which led to the suicide of Ruchika. It is a bit rich to hear that statement from this minister. Indian media of course took up the job of branding Australia a racist country. Do they have any evidence to claim that Nitin was murdered due to his race? Do they have any evidence to say who killed Nitin? This is ridiculous and an indicator of the lack of fairness, accountability and responsibility to their profession. Make no mistake, we are all very sad and angry with what has happened. A young man has lost his life in this manner. Our hearts go out to his mother, brother and other family members. We owe it to Nitin that we put sufficient pressure on Vic Police to catch the criminal and prosecute him vigorously.

2. Ku Klux Klan cartoon: This cartoon by a newspaper in India was an outrageous sensationalisation by the Indian media. What evidence they have to claim what they claimed? It is not fair to brand the whole Vic police to be Ku Klux Klan! We are not surprised that Acting PM, Julia Gillard, Acting Premier of Vic, Mr Hull and Vic police reacted angrily and called this cartoon to be offensive. Rather than going on Ku Klux Klan direction, they could have highlighted the failure of Vic police in controlling the crime situation there.

3. Murder of an Indian lady in Westmead, NSW by her husband: It is alleged that Chaman Jot Singh had killed his wife and then ran away to Melbourne from where he was arrested. He is in prison now and awaiting his trial. We did not see much coverage of this murder! Indian media is treating one murder differently from the another. Is this an example of journalism?

4. Murder/burning of Ranjodh Singh in Griffiths: This murder was shocking too. Newspaper reports are claiming that he was a contractor who was employing other Indians. It is alleged that a dispute involving the payment of wages was responsible for the fight and murder/burning. Killers are alleged to be Indians. We did not see much coverage of this in the Indian media. Why?

5. Alleged burning of an Indian in Melbourne: This story is quite unusual and the newspapers are raising doubts on some aspects of this crime. Full facts are yet to be disclosed but police are saying that aspects of the story don’t stack up.

6.  IndianTaxi driver molesting a young lady in Brisbane: A taxi driver was sentenced to 15 months prison term in Brisbane but not much has been reporeted in Indian media. Why?

7. Puneet, an Indian student, drove drunk and killed an 19 years old Gold Coast man last year. He was tried and was convicted. While waiting for the sentencing, he jumped bail and ran away from Australia, using a false passport. He lives in India now. Should he not be arrested there and sent back to an Australian jail? Where is Indian police and Indian media? Why did Indian media not cover this topic? Is it OK for an Indian to kill someone else?

http://www.theage.com.au/world/india-urges-restraint-in-reporting-of-attacks-20100110-m0iz.html

http://www.theage.com.au/national/fire-attack-on-indian-deepens-race-tensions-20100109-m00j.html

http://www.theage.com.au/national/the-mean-streets-where-the-locals-fear-to-tread-20100109-m00l.html

http://www.smh.com.au/national/two-questioned-over-burnt-body-of-indian-worker-in-griffith-20100109-m03q.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/taxi-driver-pleads-guilty-to-schoolgirl-assault/story-fn3dxity-1225817388943

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/indian-tvs-unsound-fury-20100106-lu8y.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/10/2789026.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/09/2788802.htm

 http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indians-in-oz-fear-backlash-over-ku-klux-klan-cartoon/565039/

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/6660657/indian-govt-angry-after-attack-on-man/4/$

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indians-in-oz-feel-race-angle-being-forcefully-fed-by-media/565571/

http://www.theage.com.au/national/southbank-crash-driver-drunk-and-speeding-20081001-4rcz.html

http://www.theage.com.au/national/killer-driver-fled-australia-on-false-passport-police-20090820-erzp.html

It does not matter to them that most Indian Australians do not believe Australia to be a racist country. Australia’s rules/regulations and laws are not racist. They are not discriminatory to any one on the basis of colour, race, gender or religion. It is a known fact that every country has some racists. Australia and India are no exceptions. Ask North Indians what they feel in Mumbai. Ask North Eastern Indians what they get called in New Delhi. Ask any one what Indians call Africans. Why is Indian media not taking this up? It is a known fact that every country has a crime problem. Australia also has it and India also has it. India in fact may have worse crime problem.  No country is totally crime free. What has Indian media done against crime/criminals in India? Some politicians there have extensive criminal background? Any thing being done by Indian media about that?

By the way, my comments here should not mean that I am happy with the policing by Vic Police. They are definitely not able to have an effective control on the crime situation in Vic. They need to do a review about the ways they do crime control. They should do random and unannounced searches for knives etc without giving the notice of 7 days before such searches. You read it right. They actually do give a 7 days notice about their searches in any particular suburb.Things seems to be better in NSW in this regards. May be, they should talk with their NSW counterparts.

Some “leaders” in Melbourne don’t waste any time to claim every crime being a racist crime. There is one whose comments are outrageous. He does not wait for any evidence.  His understanding of the situation is very deficient. I believe he is  harming Indian Australian community  due to his stupid statements.  His statements are irrational. He seems to have some sorts of connection with some in Indian media. His hypocrisy is objectionable as he has taken Australian citizenship and is bringing his parents to live in Australia. Why is this the case if Australia is nothing but a racist country? He is not even a student. As far as I know, he is not even working in the field of his training these days. He claims to speak for all of us. I want to tell him that we do not agree with his irrational views. We also know that he has hardly any support in Melbourne and Indian Australians in Melbourne dislike him intensely & with passion.

I ask Indian media to become rational and objective in its coverage of the problems in Australia. They should wait for the full facts to come out before jumping to any conclusion. They need to cover all crimes even when Indians are involved in committing those crime. They must stop hysterical and selective reporting. Some students also commit crime and the behaviour of some of them is below standard. They don’t know how to conduct themselves. Indian Gov’s advisory is a right thing but did we really need it? Should it not be a component of common sense and should we not know what to do and what not to do? These students are not children, after all.

The irrational reporting by Indian media is making them a laughing stalk and this is making the situation more difficult for Indian Australians. There is a risk that a backlash may happen against Indian Australians if Indian media continues its hysterical and unfair reporting.

The behaviour of a segment of Indian media begs the question. Is indian media racist towards Australia?

I know where I stand on this matter. I am going to let you make up your own mind. Do let me know what you think!

Yadu Singh/Sydney/10th Jan, 2010

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Mumbai Terror attacks of 26th Nov.This video is worth watching!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1e4_1246490858

This video has it all, any one would want to know about how Pakistani-trained terrorists killed so many people in Mumbai. These so called non-state actors have support from state actors. They could not have done what they did if they did not have support from some from these state actors.

We ask Pakistani authorities to destroy the terrorist training places and terrorist organisations, operating from its soil.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/16th Dec 2009

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Mumbai Terror attack 26/11/08:What are the lessons?

I remember getting a call from Rahul Jethi, a banker in Sydney, and a good friend and whose brother is in Indian army, early in the morning of 27th Nov 2008 [Sydney time which is 5.5 hours ahead of Indian time], about the terrorist attack in Mumbai. I switched the TV on and saw the reporting of the attack. It made me sad and angry at the same time. As it became clearer that LET was involved, I became more angry. I was helpless as I could not do much to help the people in Mumbai.

I watched the attack unfold and kept myself updated through the days. I kept reading the statements from leaders from all over the world. Thankfully, Kasab [the lone terrorist survivor] was arrested. I was angry that pakistan kept denying the nationalities of the terrorists even when the evidence was overwhelming. That has become the standard operating procedure for Pakistan. Shameful and outrageous!!

By now, we have details of Kasab’s interrogation/trial, and have seen the reports in various channels including ABC Australia, CNN and BBC.  Only recently, Farid Zakaria covered it in CNN GPS programme. A great deal is known by now. It is all clear that 10 terrorists came from Pakistan and LET was the sponsoring terrorist organisation. These terrorists were trained in Pakistan. The whole world is asking Pakistan to bring the perpetrators [supporters/sponsors] of the Mumbai terrorist attack to justice.

Lot of things have changed since 26th Nov, 2008. I hope, things would keep moving in the right direction to prevent further terrorist attacks in India. The whole world has to work against the menace of terrorism. Either Pakistan changes its ways itself or the world forces it to change. There is no alternative option.

So many people lost their lives for no reason. This has to end.

As I see it, following come to my mind;

1. India will continue to have attacks of this nature because some elements in Pakistan are hostile to India and have an agenda to harm India. Some inside ISI and Pakistan army are madly fundamentalists and are pathologically inimical towards India.

2. India is a vast country with long borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh, from where these terrorists do cross into India and will keep crossing in future too. We have to do every thing to reduce if not prevent it. India must identify illegal Bangladeshi stayers in India and expel them without much delay. Throw them in the ocean if we have to but they can’t be allowed to stay in India. No vote bank politics please!

3. The whole world has to force Pakistan to dismantle the terrorist organisations and their infrastructure to prevent attacks from Pakistan. USA and Europe are crucial in this. India must keep working with the world powers to force Pakistan to change its ways. India needs to have the right people in the ministry of external affairs to be able to have a desired effect in this matter. Shashi Tharoor is a competent minister with the contacts and experience in these matters and may be, he should be made the cabinet minister.

4. India has to improve the intelligence gathering capability significantly.

5. India has to improve the command structure to face such attacks effectively and efficiently. There was a significant delay in getting NSG commandos to Mumbai during the attack. They had to wait for hours before a plane could be arranged to fly them to Mumbai. That is outrageous. India needs to have a proactive thinking rather than a reactive one. Even the chief minister Mr Deshmukh took more than 4 hours to return to Mumbai.

6. Indian media must be forced to follow certain rules during such attacks. Media was showing the live coverage of the attack which was used by the terrorists’ minders/handlers in Pakistan to guide the terrorists. It was not helpful. I dare say, it led to many more deaths than it would have been otherwise. Indian media needs to be told that certain things are not on. Their TRP battle is not above human lives and national interests.

7.1. India has to become ruthless in investigating and prosecuting those who are involved in terrorism and those who are supporting such elements. There should be a speedy trial. Once convicted, these terrorists should be punished severely without any delay. It is not a good idea to keep convicted criminals like Afzal Guru to stay in the jail because his mercy petition is pending with the president for this unusually long period.  Why is his mercy petition pending with Indian president for years? This is outrageous! Those dreaded terrorists who were released during the Indian Airlines plane hijack, were also in the Indian prison for years without a trial. India has done a good job by establishing a national investigation agency [NIA]. NIA officials should be given freedom to work independently without any political pressure.

7.2. India must not allow any segment of its society to feel alienated. All opportunities/benefits must be truly available to every Indian irrespective of their region, religion or caste. Nation building must be taken up with redoubled vigour.

8.1. India must have a campaign to do public education to make people aware re how to keep the eyes/ears open to anything unusual and what to do when a terrorist attack is happening. We saw a big crowd of onlookers during NSG [National Security Guards] counter-attack which is not smart. Where was the crowd control?

8.2. The civil police must be trained properly. It is not a good idea for top police officials to be in one single car which was not bullet proof. This was the case even when they had access to the bullet proof vehicles. This led to costly loss of lives of the leaders of police force. We hear that Mr Karkare and others did not receive immediate help after being wounded. One wonders whether some of these great policemen would not have died if we had an efficient medical, police and rescue systems.

8.3. India and Indian public needs to do every thing to look after the near/dear ones/dependents of the brave security men/women who give their lives to protect us and the country. Gov authorities need to do many things to let people know that India has utmost respects and gratitude for such brave men/women.

9. Indian leaders were issuing the statements after statements but not much came out of that. We should learn to show results rather than just talks.

10.1. India needs to improve its military capabilities in such a way that Pakistan or its supporters do not dare look towards India. We need to revamp the capabilities of our air force, navy and artillery.

10.2.While working on the military capabilities, India needs to work with redoubled vigour to settle the outstanding issues with its neighbours.

I am keen to hear from you with your views on these matters.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/27-11-09

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Corruption Perception Index [CPI]: NZ at 1, Australia at 8 and India at 84th place!

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009/cpi_2009_table

Have a look at this table of Corruption perception Index [CPI] from Transparency International [TI], which places NZ at the top, Australia at number 8 and India at 84th.

 I have lived in all 3 countries and know the difference. NZ and Australia are far cleaner as far as the impact of corruption is concerned in day to day lives of the people.

Somalia and Afghanistan are at the bottom. Pakistan and Bangladesh are at 139th place. Nepal is even lower. You would see that whole South Asia is very poorly placed in this list. Bhutan is the only exception. Are we surprised? At least, I am not.

I would love to see India within the top 10.

As TI says, Corruption ruins lives, take action and fight back. Please do think about what we, the people, can do to reduce corruption in the world.

Yadu Singh/Orlando*/17-11-09

*I am attending American Heart Association Conference at Orlando, Florida, USA currently.

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“Made in China” is now “Made in Egypt”: A lesson for India!

@dryadusingh http://bit.ly/2h2Q8l

“Made in China” can be “Made in Egypt” as this article from Sydney Morning Herald [SMH] is suggesting. This is very smart as USA and other countries have quota for different countries’ exports to USA.

Indian’s economy is growing but it will grow better if we are smarter. You can see how China is investing in Africa and what benefit is going to China in all fronts-economic, general goodwill, political and diplomatic.

As one of our VEDAs says, “Let the good ideas come from all angles and all sources” and China is not excluded for the source of ideas. 

Yadu Singh/Sydney/09-11-09

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Indian chaos:we can do better!

http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article43951.ece

This write-up in The Hindu newspaper is very good. It shows what we  generally do and by implication, what we should not do. I remember at least two functions in Sydney when some Indian bigwigs were openly fighting [verbally] about the seating arrangements. One was our own medical association’s function where the wife of the vice president had some serious arguments with the president.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/08-11-09

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Student Visa Scam in Australia:One more story and one more angle!

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,26252691-12332,00.html

I am sick and tired of the scams, rorts and fraudulent acts on the name of Student Visa and International education in Australia.

Now, human smuggling has been mentioned.

Please clean it, investigate it and prosecute those who are involved in it.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/24th Oct, 2009

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China-India history in a nutshell:This article from WSJ is worth a look!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125625173429702481.html#project%3DSLIDESHOW08%26s%3DSB125621157646101033%26articleTabs%3Darticle

This article describes the history, positions, trade and problems between China and India in a nutshell.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/23rd Oct 2009

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India of my deams:What it should be but is not?

India is a country which has >1 Billion people, >400 million middle class, rapidly growing economy, increasing quality of life for at least the middle and upper classes and is being increasingly accepted as a global player. It received an India-specific NSG exemption for nuclear trade at IAEA, Vienna last year without signing NPT and despite the efforts from China to stall this exemption. It is one of the candidates for the UNSC permanent seats. Previously, India used to be bracketed with Pakistan but now it is with China. India and China are two countries which are mentioned as the engine heads for the global economy. These are not small achievements. We should be proud about this all.

Having said that, we should not be satisfied until India becomes the country with the highest/top GDP growth, economy, political/strategic/military strength, quality of life and a place in UNSC permanent membership.

We should become a caring society whose citizens are well-mannered, utmost moral and universally regarded as decent citizens. It would be difficult but not impossible.

India would have been at a much higher position if we did not have to deal with several deficiencies/problems which have become even worse. These issues have continued to drag us down from the growth path and our destiny.

If we want to be truly a global player, we have to deal with these issues/problems.

I will outline what I think are the issues which need to be dealt with;

1. Corruption: It has become a python which is strangulating all aspects of our national life. It is very common among the bureaucrats and politicians. LOK AYUKT, Independent Commission against Corruption and Courts would have to be given wide-spread powers to deal with this problem effectively and expeditiously.

2. Lack of accountability: No body seems to understand the concept of accountability. An engineer can pass a bridge which was built with substandard material and which collapses, killing hundreds of people with hardly any penalty for the engineer. A politician can mis-spend money on parks/statues etc when people are starving and no body can effectively question that politician today in India. A doctor and lawyer do poor jobs and unlike western countries, they are not held accountable in India. We have to learn the concept of accountability and practise it.

3. Ignorance of rights and obligations concept: We may know what our rights are but not many are willing to follow the concept of obligation which goes hand in hand with the rights. Public education via mass media is required.

4. Education: We may have millions with BA, BSc or PhD but often their knowledge is confined to books only. Practical and real education is lacking. If we are indeed educated, why will we allow the criminals to win the elections and why do we vote for a candidate based on the caste/religion? Our education system and curriculum need to be reviewed. significantly increased investment must be made to improve the standards in the schools and universities. It is shameful to see that no Indian Uni is in the top 100 World Universities.

5. Poverty: We have massive poverty and see poor people everywhere. Why have we not created the employment for our people by providing practical/vocational training? Why have we not created a proper welfare system for those who can’t find employment or can’t do any job due to physical/mental incapacity? The answers are obvious.

6. Health System: We have two classes of health system. Rich people can go to private hospitals and can get the world class treatment but poor people have nothing except some vitamins and third class antibiotics from the public hospitals. They are left to die at these public hospitals. Govt needs to invest in Public health. The concept of hygiene and preventive health needs to be promoted in our day to day work, life and business. We have to reduce the maternal and infant mortality.

6. Police: Our police is behaving as if India is still ruled by the British. They have no respect for the people and often, they behave as the criminals. Why the police is not able to be a professional force with associated requirements in crime prevention, investigation and prosecution? No wonder, custodial deaths are far too common. Major changes are needed urgently. National/State police commissions with involvement of relevant people including the public are needed to review what needs to be done to make our police force a good force.

7. Manners, etiquette, and public behaviour: Rudeness, arrogance and discourteous behaviour is far too common. If we can be  model citizens when out of India, why we can not be similar when in India? Urinating/defecating openly and spitting are just few examples which must be stopped soon. Public education via schools and mass media is needed. Penalty regime like Singapore will have to be thought about.

8. Public servants or the masters of public: Bureaucrats behave as if they are our kings/queens rather than public servants. Drastic changes are needed in their work, attitudes and behaviours.

9. Politicians: We have openly corrupt politicians and many are criminals. We should not allow any one who has been convicted of a set of defined crimes to contest election. Elections rules must be reviewed and revised.

10. Reservation: Reservation was brought in 1947 for 15 years but it has become permanent. Sons of IAS and ministers are getting the benefits of reservation even in IITs, medical institutions and judiciary. Caste based reservation must be stopped and people from disadvantaged parts of the society irrespective of the caste should be given help to improve themselves but there should be no reservation in either qualifying exams, jobs or promotions.

11. Judiciary:Trials can go on for decades before any judgement is delivered. Justice has to be delivered quickly. We would need more courts and judges to deal with this problem. No case can go on in one court for more than 1-2 years.

12. Government leaders:  Ministers should be appointed because they are capable, not because of any other reason. A foreign minister should be the one who can deal with the intricacies of foreign affairs and a finance minister should be the one who has concepts of finance management. Politicians and ministers should know that there is something called retirement. Either they retire themselves after 70 yrs or political parties should not select them after this age.

13. Public mentality and attitude: “Chalta Hai” attitude is harmful. “Muft Khori” is not helpful. We need to have the concepts of self-worth, self-esteem and nationalism instilled in us with the help of curriculum and mass media. Pan-Indian identity should be promoted and encouraged in preference to region, caste and religion based identity.

14. Compulsory English and computer education: Every student must be taught English along with a local language. English has remained the link language and Bollywood films has taken care of Hindi. Similarly, every student must have a minimum standard in computer/internet use and familiarity.

15. Civic sense and moral education: While our GDP/economy has grown, the civic sense and moral standards have fallen. You would see that rubbish is thrown out on the streets from the homes. No body lets the elderly get out from the buses/trains easily and helps them in doing so.  People do not care who falls as long as they get in the buses/trains. Profits and selfish gains are everything for a significant proportion of our population. Proper emphasis on Civic sense and moral behaviour must be given from the formative years.

16. Human rights and value of Life:We have the National Human Right Commission [NHRC] and similar ones in the state but we still have serious violation of human rights in India. “Life” has hardly any value. A doctor and a hospital will often refuse to treat a critically injured person only because they have not lodged a FIR. In the process, critically important time is wasted, leading to preventable fatal outcomes. An intense and massive mass media campaign on human rights and values will have to be commenced.  NHRC will need to be given more powers to investigate, prosecute and punish the culprits which often are the bureaucrats and police authorities.

17. Aged care: It is not uncommon that people do not care for their elders in India these days. This is not universal by any means but not uncommon either. The State must take initiatives to ensure that elderly people are able to live with dignity. Lok Sabha had recently passed an act which has provisions to protect elderly people from abuse from their relatives.

18. Naxalism:When the state is not doing what it must do, we see the births and growth of extra-Gov forces. Multi-pronged strategies need to be adopted in controlling this menace.

19. Terrorism: India will face this problem for long time because it is not likely anytime soon to have a good relationship with Pakistan. We need to remove our “soft image” and become ruthless in eliminating the terrorist elements. It does not serve a great purpose to keep a convicted terrorist in Tihar Jail for years when even supreme court has rejected the appeal. President of India must not keep the mercy appeals pending indefinitely.

20. Effective foreign policy: While we set our house in order effectively, we need to have a good foreign policy which is able to adapt itself with the changing scenario around us and far afield. It should be managed by those who are the most competent to run the Foreign affairs. We need to learn from China in  these matters and need to study how it has befriended Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mal Dives and Burma, often at our cost.

There is a need for a “Commission for national development”which should be entrusted with the job of finding out the priorities for the nation building and national development.

We may not like to admit it but we will need to study with full seriousness, the ways and methods which China adopted in achieving what it has in the last 30 years.

Having said all what I have said, it still remains a fact that nothing would be achieved until we, the people of India, change ourselves in regards to who we are, what is our self worth, what are our rights & obligations, what type of politicians and Gov we want to have, where we want to go, and where our country ought to be going. It is us that must change the most.

I will keep thinking on these topics and will keep updating this write-up. I look forward to your views.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/13-10-09

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Air India Pilots and cabin staff fight in the sky:Air India,Tussi [You] The Great!

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,,26165918-5017817,00.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/travel/hosties-pilots-in-plane-sex-punch-up-on-air-india-flight/story-e6frezhr-1225782957769

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/business/india-business/Air-India-pilots-crew-come-to-blows-at-30000-ft/articleshow/5085243.cms

Air India pilots and crews threw punches at 30000 Ft in the sky. Allegations of physical and sexual assaults have been made. FIR has been lodged. Police is investigating.

This apparently happened in front of passengers.

 Air India says that the safety of passengers was not at risk although some reports tell us that fight happened in the cockpit and then spilled over in the cabin.

Gross unprofessional, callous and irresponsible behaviour!

This is going to damage the brand Air India’s battered image and India in general.

Fast and fair investigation should be done and the guilty parties should be sacked summarily. In addition, they should face the criminal justice system for causing potential danger to the plane and passengers.

I travel with Air India in preference to other air lines.

I have to think twice now.

The Indian civil aviation minister, Mr Praful Patel and Air India board have serious job at their hands.

And I say “Air India, Tussi the great!”.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/06-10-09

www.twitter.com/dryadusingh

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Shashi Tharoor is right:we should work on 2nd October and 5th September too!

You have to love the tweets from the minister of state for foreign affairs, Gov of India, Mr Shashi Tharoor. They are informative, instructive and educative. He is a switched on and a tech savvy minister.

He got the unfair flak from Mrs Big Bindi AKA Ms Jayanthi Natarajan, Mr Ashok Gehlot and few more from AICC on his “Cattle class and holy cows” tweet but he made his point any way.

Now, his brilliant idea about us working on 2nd October is a gem of the idea.

When Bapu had himself said”work is worship” then why should we not follow him and work on 2nd October “Gandhi Jayanti? Why have the hypocrisy of claiming to follow Bapu and not actually follow his teachings? After all, in many countries including Vietnam, people celebrate the birth days of their greats, by working and not going on holidays on that day. 

I agree with you Mr Tharoor whole-heartedly. Way to go Mr Tharoor!

Thinking about it though, why should we stop at only 2nd October?

We should work on 5th September AKA “Teachers’ day” too. All teachers should teach, student study and others work their usual jobs on that day!

We need more brilliant ideas from the intelligent ministers in the Gov and the brilliant people among us!

AICC and UPA Gov, you are lucky to have a person of Mr Tharoor’s calibre! I am serious here.

Mrs Big Bindi, don’t you even try making issues with Mr Tharoor please! Leave him alone. He speaks for me and millions more!

Yadu Singh/Sydney/06-10-09

www.twitter.com/dryadusingh

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A Brain-less and criminal act of burning the train in India: Culprits must be tracked down and punished!

Train torched

The Mahananda Express on fire in Hathras on Wednesday. PTI
 
Uttar Pradesh has a significant law and order problem. We all know it. Probably, Bihar is the only state which is worse. Mayawati Gov is trying its best to control the menace but its success is only partial. We recall that Ms Mayawati’s Party came to power in 2007 largely because of the serious law and order situation prevailing then.
 
After coming to power, CM Mayawati appointed Mr Vikram Singh as the DGP of UP police. He did a good job in getting Daduwa and other dacoits like Thokia eradicated. Despite Mr Vikram Singh’s efforts, things did not improve fully. You might recall the case of an engineer in Etawah District who was allegedly murdered by an MLA of CM Mayawati’s party, BSP. I am originally from UP and I know for sure that she has been trying to control the lawlessness in UP. She is the only CM who got one of her MPs arrested from her office because he was into crimes. She also got a minister arrested because his name appeared in an FIR.  A lot of things have been done in UP but a lot more still need to be done.
 
Crime is common in UP. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon that people who have connections and muscle power [often the politicians] are involved in criminal activities.
 
Political leaders, if we can call them leaders, have their supporters who will do anything at their behest. Processions, rallies, disruption of normal lives and destruction of public properties are very common. They do not realise or do not care that destruction of public property is a stupid activity. Damage to buses and trains is going to cause difficulties in having these facilities.
 
Damage to buses, trains and other public properties is a recurring problem and nothing seems to be done effectively to stop this.
 
Even the people in UP have become disinterested in looking after their needs. They should oppose the traffic jams by the stupid processions, and destruction of the public properties. They should not elect those who are involved in such activities. Apathy rules in UP.
 
One very important reason why it has continued to happen, is the apathy of police which does not investigate, arrest and prosecute effectively the anti-social elements who come back again and again to repeat the crimes.
 
It is the tax-payers and general public which suffers as this leads to more difficulties in getting the services.
 
It is about time that CM Ms Mayawati, Home secretary and new DGP UP, Mr Karam Veer Singh do something serious which will stop this nonsense soon.
 
DGP Mr Karam Veer Singh has a reputation for a great officer. I remember his work when I was in KGMC in 1980s. To begin with, DGP should order the local police in Hathras to form a team of sub inspectors [or a team of SIs is sent from any other district] which is given the job of identifying the culprits who should then be charged with the damage. The case should be fast-tracked in the court not only for jail terms but also the recovery of the money for the damage. 
 
 Hathras Police should seek the help of the local intelligence unit of the dept. The leaders of the agitation must be charged. DGP Mr Karam Veer Singh and home secretary, Mr Mahesh Gupta should do a direct supervision of the investigating team to ensure a fast, fair and a good investigation.
 
The culprits of the Mahananda Express train damage must be made to pay for the damage.
 
 A message must go out that such activities would not be tolerated in UP. A message should go out that the crime and criminals would not be tolerated in Uttar Pradesh. A message should also go out that UP Police means business and will control crimes at every cost.
 
UP Police will need some reforms in regards to its work culture and professionalism which is do-able and should be done at a fast pace. A sense of self-respect must be instilled among the lower rank officers and constables to encourage a better performance from them.
 
UP gov will need the will power which should not a problem with Ms Mayawati as the CM.
 
Dr Yadu Singh/Sydney/04-10-09 
 
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Indian student commits suicide in Australia:Who is accountable and what has to be done to prevent such incidents?

I was extremely saddened to hear the news of an Indian student who had committed suicide in Melbourne recently.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indian-student-commits-suicide-in-australia/519725/

Mr Gurjinder Singh was a student of La Trobe University, doing accounting. He was in Australia only for 3 months. From the newspaper reports, I read that he was depressed about not finding a job in Australia. As we know, international students are allowed to work for 20 hours a week.

He was in his early 20s.

I have been thinking about him ever since I heard about his death. I feel for him and his situations before he committed suicide. I feel for the grief and loss for his parents in India. I have been trying to analyse what went in his mind before he came to this extreme point and took his life.

What happened here? How can a person become so severely depressed within so short time after arriving in Australia? Why his flat-mates and class-mates did not know about his situation? Why nothing could be done to prevent this tragedy?

Obviously, a lot of people failed here in averting a tragedy of this nature.

As I see it, following things come to my mind;

1. his classmates failed in their responsibility by not noticing his situation and turmoil and doing something about it,

2. his flat mates failed in their responsibility by again not noticing his situation and turmoil and doing something about it,

3. his University’s support system also could not do much to prevent this tragedy [may be they did what was needed to done but we are not aware of it],

4. his close relatives could not do anything to prevent his death. A young man felt this desperate and committed suicide and close relatives did not have a clue of his situation! Was this young man pushed into coming to Australia and had lots of expectation from his relatives but he was not helped with the essential things ie money which he needed to succeed in Australia?,

5. the education agents in India who did not inform him about the situation and ground realities re the jobs and the required money for his tuition etc,

6. his University system which could not prevent such a devastating tragedy by informing him at the orientation time about the health matters/systems including the psychological health issues which he could have accessed . There are help lines available which are very useful and are known to prevent suicides.  I recognise that his University might have informed him about all this at the time of orientation but he did not use the information. He could have gone to a GP. He had access to the health system in Australia as all students are required to have a health insurance. Alas, nothing of these happened!

7. I am sorry to say this but this young man also failed himself and his parents by taking this extreme step when he could have done many things to get him out of his situation. This could have been about calling help lines, speaking with his class mates/flat mates, speaking with counsellors, speaking with his parents and even returning to India if things were not going to change. Every thing would have been preferrable to the extreme step of committing suicide. A degree from a Uni in Australia and a possible PR in Australia are nothing when we compare them with the “Life”. By saying this, I am not minimising the grief/sadness which his near and dears ones are going through right now. I have a great deal of empathy with every one who is going through this grief but…….

 Life is always full of challenges and we need to face the challenges rather than taking the self-harm steps. Most times, we can deal with them ourselves but some times, we would need help from others and we must seek it from them.

Parents and students must be aware of the possibility that a job may not be available in Australia. Arrangements for ongoing living expenses and tuition fees must be made before travelling to Australia. Aus Gov authorities in the relevant Embassy/High Commission must make it amply clear that students can work for upto 20hours/week but jobs in Australia can not be the main or the only source of funding the expenses during their stay in Australia.

To be honest with you, I believe that students should not come to Australia if they do not have a capability to arrange funding for their fees and living expenses without a job in Australia.

Depression is a common problem and people from all age groups, ethnicity and circumstances can suffer from depression. Indians are no exception. It is eminently treatable. No body needs to suffer without the help, support and treatment for it. We of course need to let others know what is going on inside us. Many a times, others would not know about the turmoil inside if we do not seek help, talk about it or let them know what is going on inside us. 

 Unfortunately, there is a stigma attached to the mental health issues and anecdotally, this may be more true in the Indian community.

In this regard, I admire the courage which was shown by Jeff Kennett [former Vic Premier], Andrew Robb [Liberal Front Bencher] and Geoff Gallop [ former premier of Western Australia] when they came out with their depression and sought help.

To prevent any loss of life in this manner, we all must show compassion and look after our friends, class mates, flat mates, relatives or any one whom we know if we find that they are having difficulties in these matters. We need to talk with our close ones and share with them the difficulties we are experiencing.

It does not help and it is not correct if we point a finger of blame, to the premier of Victoria, Mr John Brumby by making him responsible for this suicide as has been done by a non-student “leader” in Melbourne. This is ridiculous. This “leader” is talking nonsense and is playing useless politics. He should be ashamed of himself.

A very sad situation has happened and we all including the Gov agencies need to think about the preventive measures which must be in place to avert such deaths, knowing that International students are under lots of pressure, do not have the traditional support mechanism for them in Australia and some of them may not be able to cope with the circumstances. Schools, TAFE and Universities must review their orientation systems to make sure there is information on health including mental health issues in their orientation programmes.

The education providers must have a system of “student co-ordinators” who should have a close interaction with the students. Pastoral care is a service which is extremely essential in relation to International students.

 State Governments must ensure that the education providers in their territories do have enough information on these matters in these programmes and have adequate pastoral care mechanism.

Indian associations must review what they can do to help Indian students when they are having difficulties in dealing with the situations/circumstances in Australia.

There is a significant role for the media in India and in Australia to take up the issue of mental health among International students. Many of them go through a very difficult environment. As Indian students do access the ethnic Indian media in Australia regularly, it can and should do a significant job by making people aware of the mental health and help system available in Australia. Kumud Merani [SBS Radio], Pawan Luthra [Indian Link], Rohit Revo [The Indian] and Dinesh Malhotra [Bharat Times] have the instrument which can be very effective in this regard. After all, we do have the great systems like LIFE LINE and BEYOND BLUE in Australia but this may not be known to our students.

We all have to work together to save lives of those who are going through a difficult time in their lives!

We all need to work together in all sorts of manners to help our students!

Dr Yadu Singh/Sydney/23rd Sept, 2009.

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Leave Shashi Tharoor Alone:Nothing wrong in the cattle class!

Express”]Picture courtesy: The Indian Express[/caption

Mrs Big Bindi [Jayanti Natarajan] has raised too much fuss about Shashi Tharoor’s comments. Ashok Gehlot, CM of Rajasthan and Manish Tiwari have joined in. They are very upset with “cattle class” and “holy cows” comments.

Poor Shashi who is in Africa, has to say sorry. He is being distracted.

Mrs Big Bindi, please leave him alone as

  •  his comments are tongue-in-cheek.
  • there is nothing wrong in calling the economy class a “cattle class”. Many of us call it exactly that and sometime it is called a “Coolie class” too.
  • he is doing a good job as a minister.
  • we need to understand his sense of humour. 

UPA Gov ministers and Congress should devote more time in dealing with the pressing issues in India rather than wasting time on minor things. Look what a debacle India has been subjected to by China in the ADB recently. Even Japan voted in favour of China in regards to Arunachal Pradesh. Australia, SE Asians and Pakistan favoured China too.

Shashi Tharoor is an educated and intelligent person with a profile which many in Congress do not have. We need more like him in Indian politics. I remember him being interviewed on TV channels when he visited Australia a couple of years ago. He spoke so well. He knew how to communicate.

I also do not see anything wrong in it if he wanted to stay in a 5 star hotel at his expense. We all know now that he had travelled in economy class before the “Austerity stunts” became the currency in India.

I was also amused with the statement from BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy who has also jumped into the band wagon and said: “Tharoor has termed economy class in airlines as cattle class. (This reflects) the insensitivity of the minister. This tantamounts to (causing) deep injury to the self-respect and esteem of millions who travel economy class,”**

Are you kidding Mr Rajiv Pratap Rudy? This is not expected from you as you are an educated fellow and a good politician. You mean to suggest that people who travel in the “cattle class” will have a deep injury because Shashi Tharoor called the economy class the “cattle class” but would not have such injury if Shashi Tharoor did not call it a “cattle class”. For your info, I travel in “cattle class” and do not suffer any damage/injury to my self-respect. I continue to practise as a cardiologist in Sydney irrespective of whether I travelled in the “cattle class” or the “King class” last week end.

Brother Rudy, please give Indian public a break!  

If you want more, you can go to TimesNow with Arnab Goswami who had Amit Verma, Jug Suraiya and some one named Tom Vadakkan [I presume he is from Congress party] in his programme. Tom Vadakkan made a gem of a statement ” Tweet is a lonely person and needs counselling” . Well done Mr Vadakkan!

It is about time that we get to the real jobs rather than getting entangled in “Austerity hysteria and stunts”. I hope the “Holy Cows” of Indian politics would start doing the right things.

Yadu Singh/Sydney/19th Sept, 2009

————————————————————————————————————————————————-

20th September, 2009

I now know that Tom Vadakkan is from Kerala and is a secretary of AICC.

Dr Yadu Singh

** Reported by IANS

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OCI Card: Professor Sujit K Pandit has some suggestions……..

I wrote to Prof Pandit today and he emailed the following matter.

His email goes like……..
“Thank you for doing a useful service to the community.

I would like you to read my update too:

Updated Sept 17, 2009

OCI RULES CAN BE CHANGED

Following my e-mail message (a copy is attached below) about my aggravation at the Kolkata airport over the OCI card, I have received about 300 responses. I am absolutely overwhelmed and thankful to all those who have written.  I had no idea how deeply the Indians all over the world feel about this issue.  Most people were thankful to me for sharing my story so they can learn from my bad experience.  The majority, about 90% of the responders was outraged at the lack of common sense and common courtesy of the immigration officials at the Kolkata airport. More than a dozen people have narrated their own horror stories, very similar and even worse than mine at airports in India when they arrived with an OCI card only, these are really heart wrenching stories involving small children and the whole family members undergoing incredible hardships.  Others were alerted at the last moment by the airlines officials at the departing airport in the USA about the need to carry the visa sticker that may be in their old passport.  Some were surprised that I had the problem because they have gone to India with just the OCI card and they were allowed to enter India without having to show their visa.  Some assumed that the problem may be at the Kolkata airport and probably the corruption is rampant there. They suggested that the officers there might be looking for a bribe. Many were still confused about the rules of the OCI and have asked me for advice.  Many others narrated the appalling treatment they have received at the various Indian consular offices.

About 10% of the responders said I got what I deserved at the Kolkata airport for not reading rules of the OCI card and for not following the rules strictly.  They thought the officers were just doing their duties.

Some especially from England and Canada told me that they have PIO (Person of Indian Origin) cards and had never had to show their visa at the Indian airports.  And the OCI is supposed to be the upgraded version of the PIO card.  Go figure. 

One person has written that for a family of five (three children) under the current OCI rules he has to carry fifteen travel documents when going to India (five old passports,  five current passports and five OCI cards)

I am thankful to all who have taken the time to write to me. 

I know it was my mistake for not taking my old passport with the visa sticker with me and I will never make the same mistake again; the main purpose of my mail was to warn my friends not to make the same mistake that I made. 

But, then my friend Dr. Dinesh Patel from Boston pointed out to me that the rules CAN be changed and the bad/confusing rules SHOULD be changed. I think that is a great point.  Rather than just accepting and following the bad rules and thus perpetuating them, we should try to change the bad rules. In addition because of the confusing name of the OCI and the false buzz about the “Dual Citizenship” many people make the same mistake as I did. When so many people make the same mistake in spite of the rules, then may be the system needs to be fixed.  Confusing rules of OCI needs to be changed. The bad rules can only be changed if there is enough pressure from the public to the politicians and the civil servants. .

I believe, just like the persons holding a PIO card the OCI card holders should also be allowed to enter India without having to bring the old visa sticker every time.  The fact is, whenever any one is granted his/her OCI card, he/she is thoroughly vetted and only then the OCI card is issued along with a life long visa sticker.  Both go hand in hand.  You cannot get an OCI card without a life long visa.  I know that in spite of the puzzling name (Overseas CITIZEN of India) the OCI card is not a passport, right now we can not have both American (or Canadian or UK) passports as well an Indian passport But, the OCI card can be and should be the visa substitute. As far as the entry requirement to India the OCI card could act like the US Green card.  Once you have it there will be no need to carry a separate visa ever.

When an individual has a US Passport and an OCI card, production of a visa should not be insisted upon, because, the  evidence of a valid visa is implicit in the OCI card, which may be deemed to be a certification higher than the visa itself.

The other problem is the utter lack of common courtesy and competence at the various Indian Consular Offices. I have received more than 15 mails that detail their dreadful experiences at various Indian Consular Offices.  These Consular offices are amateurish and incompetent.  I myself had a horrible time trying to get my OCI card in Chicago.  When I complained, there was no response. I can not even think about going back there to get my visa sticker transferred from my old passport to my new one, and what about when I get yet another new passport?  This is a disgrace that the officials at the Consular offices are not trained to be courteous to their customers like real professionals.

We need to bring pressure on the politicians and civil servants to simplify the procedure and let the OCI card be the visa substitute. Please send this mail to others once again and may be some one knows an important person who will understand the problem and solve it. That will make travel to India a joy and not stressful. We also need to make the Indian Consular offices more “Professional”. 

 
I am attaching a copy of my original e-mail:
MY DUAL CITIZENSHIP WOES: MY RECENT EXPERIENCE WITH THE IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT AT THE KOLKATA AIRPORT AND THE LESSONS I LEARNT

My advice to all my friends who hold an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) Card and those who aspire to get one.

I am an American citizen.  I also carry an OCI card (Overseas Citizen of India) since 2007. 

On Saturday, June 20, 2009, I arrived at the Kolkata Netaji Subhas Airport from Detroit via Singapore, by Singapore Airlines (SQ 516) at 10:30 P.M.

I presented myself to an Immigration Officer  (Mr. Biswas) for immigration clearance.  I gave him my American passport and my OCI card.  He demanded to see my visa from the Indian consular office.  Unfortunately, that visa was attached to my old passport and I did not bring it with me.

I explained to him that I am sorry I forgot to bring my old passport but since I do possess a valid OCI Card that would automatically mean that I do also possess a permanent (life long) visa for India and there are proofs that I have traveled multiple times to India after I had received my OCI card. 

 Mr. Biswas detained me for two hours inside the airport   and then he told me that he is going to allow me to stay in India for 72 hours and asked me to report to the Foreign Relations Regional Officer (FRRO) in the city within 72 hours.  He kept my passport.  During all that time I had no opportunity either to approach his OC (Officer in Charge) although I asked for it, or to contact my relatives who came to the airport to receive me and were waiting outside and had no idea why I was being held back or if I have even arrived.

Forgetting to bring my old passport was my own fault but I ‘forgot’ to bring it partly because I knew I have my OCI Card with me and I thought, that means something, I really believed that I am a citizen of India too.  Why would a citizen also need a visa to enter his own country?   I thought I have a dual citizenship for both the USA and India. Other wise, what is the difference between an ordinary foreigner and the OCI Card holder?

Next day was a Sunday, I called a friend in Ann Arbor who went into my house, got my old passport and sent me the scanned copy of my old passport and a copy of my permanent visa by e-mail. 

So, on Monday I went to see Mr. Bibhas Talukdar, the FRRO.  He hardly looked at the documents (the scanned visa) that I had with me he simply asked me to get my old passport by courier mail within another seven days.  He appeared gleeful telling me that it is only out of  “pity” that he is allowing me to stay in India for seven more days.  He was totally unimpressed by either my status as a Professor Emeritus of the University of Michigan or my age (70+)

I called my friend in Ann Arbor again who then sent my old passport by FedEx.  Three days later the passport arrived.  Since I had to leave Kolkata for prescheduled visit to Bangalore, my niece took it to Mr. Talukdar. But due to lack of communication between the FRRO office and the airport immigration department my passport had not arrived at the city office even after 9 days.  My niece had to go to the FRRO’s office three times once waiting until 6 P.M. still they did not have my passport.  They only promised: “it will come soon”.  At last, 12 days after my arrival, my niece got my passport.
From this painful and anxiety provoking experience I have learned a few valuable lessons:

1.    The loud talk about “Dual Citizenship” for Indian Americans is just a political hoax.

2.    The OCI card just does not have any value.  It is just a piece of expensive junk. You still need a visa every time you travel to India whether or not you possess an OCI card.  Only difference is that for the high price of getting an OCI card you will get a “life long ” visa.  A 10-year visa is much cheaper.
 
3.    When coming to India always consider yourself a foreigner and bring your visa with you, there will be no exceptions. Your OCI card is not a visa substitute.

4.     In fact, you will probably be treated worse than an ordinary foreigner arriving without a valid visa.  Because a foreigner especially a white Caucasian will at least be treated with courtesy and probably offered a temporary visa if there is no reason to deny it, but not you.

5.    Since the word “CITIZEN” in the OCI card is the root cause of confusion, the name should be changed.

 

Please feel free to forward this mail to any of your friends who may benefit from my experience.  Especially feel free to forward this to any influential politician or civil servant in India that you may know.

Sujit K. Pandit M.D.
Professor Emeritus
Department of Anesthesiology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
48109, USA”

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Farrukh Dhondy’s advice to Indian Australians and Indian students is inappropriate.

Dr Yadu Singhhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/17/2688266.htm

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/indians-abroad/Dont-break-the-law-Australian-PM-warns-Indian-students/articleshow/5021162.cms

Mr Farrukh Dhondy is a UK-based writer/editor of Indian background. He was interviewed by the ABC AM team today [see the link above].

He is advising students and Indian Australians to retaliate and take law into our hands. Any sane person would see the futility of his argument. How are we going to achieve what we want if we go the direction recommended by him?

His advice to us and Indian students in Australia is totally inappropriate. It may even be crazy and irrational. It is not going to solve the problems.

I give following arguments against his advice:

1. Indians are a small population on numerical strength and can not be expected to win the retaliation game.

2. Indians are not going to become idiots like those thugs who bashed 3 Indians in Epping, Melbourne.

3. Students have come here to study, not to fight in retaliation which would cause more and serious troubles for them.

4. Taking law into our hands will itself be illegal and may end up sending us to jail.

5. Taking law into our hands will destroy any goodwill, Indian Australians have from the general Australian community.

6. Taking law into our hands will be totally counter-productive.

We reject his suggestions as irresponsible, insane, impractical and inappropriate.

We do have to understand the difference between retaliation and self-defence.

We have to find solutions to these problems within the systems of Australia and within the Laws of Australia.

Prime Minister Mr Kevin Rudd is right in advising the students to not take laws into their hands [see the link above].

I would categorise Mr Dhondy’s comments as ill-advised statements.

He does not live in Australia and would not know the situation in Australia.

We are parts of Australian society and we have to find solutions to the troubles in co-operation with other constituents of Australian society.

Let me re-state that the overwhelming majority of Australians are excellent citizens. They are as frustrated and angry with a miniscule fraction of our people who are racist and do not hesitate to harm others because of the race reasons. To me and other decent Australians, this tiny minority does not qualify to be called “Human”.

Mr Dhondy, please butt out from Australian troubles and issues. You are inflaming the situation.

Dr Yadu Singh/Sydney/17th Sept, 2009

http://www.twitter.com/dryadusingh

http://www.facebook.com/dryadusingh

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OCI Card: A story of an Emeritus Professor of Medicine from USA!

 This email was sent to me by Rajesh Pandey who is a great guy from our community. He is based in Sydney. The behaviour of the Indian officials with this Professor from USA made me sad. It also raised concerns/questions about OCI cards. I hope we can hear from the Indian Consulate, Sydney about the OCI card and its usefulness.

I reproduce the content of the email.

This email reads as……..
“Indian Immigration!
 
Horror Of Dual Citizenship With India
 
   
 
MY DUAL CITIZENSHIP WOES:
MY RECENT EXPERIENCE WITH THE IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT
AT THE KOLKATA AIRPORT AND THE LESSONS I LEARNT
 

My advice to all my friends who hold an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) Card and those who aspire to get one.
 
I am an American citizen.  I also carry an OCI card (Overseas Citizen of India) since 2007. 
On Saturday, June 20, 2009 , I arrived at the Kolkata Netaji Subhas Airport from Detroit via Singapore , by Singapore Airlines (SQ 516) at 10:30 P.M.
 
I presented myself to an Immigration Officer  ( Mr. Biswas ) for immigration clearance.  I gave him my American passport and my OCI card.  He demanded to see my visa from the Indian consular office.  Unfortunately, that visa was attached to my old passport and I did not bring it with me.
I explained to him that I am sorry I forgot to bring my old passport but since I do possess a valid OCI Card that would automatically mean that I do also possess a permanent (life long) visa for India and there are proofs that I have traveled multiple times to India after I had received my OCI card. 
 
Mr. Biswas detained me for two hours inside the airport   and then he told me that he is going to allow me to stay in India for 72 hours and asked me to report to the Foreign Relations Regional Officer (FRRO) in the city within 72 hours.  He kept my passport.  During all that time I had no opportunity either to approach his OC (Officer in Charge) although I asked for it, or to contact my relatives who came to the airport to receive me and were waiting outside and had no idea why I was being held back or if I have even arrived.
 
Forgetting to bring my old passport was my own fault but I ‘forgot’ to bring it partly because I knew I have my OCI Card with me and I thought, that means something, I really believed that I am a citizen of India too.  Why would a citizen also need a visa to enter his own country?   I thought I have a dual citizenship for both the USA and India . Other wise, what is the difference between an ordinary foreigner and the OCI Card holder?
Next day was a Sunday, I called a friend in Ann Arbor who went into my house, got my old passport and sent me the scanned copy of my old passport and a copy of my permanent visa by e-mail. 
 
So, on Monday I went to see Mr. Bibhas Talukdar , the FRRO.  He hardly looked at the documents (the scanned visa) that I had with me he simply asked me to get my old passport by courier mail within another seven days.  He appeared gleeful telling me that it is only out of  “pity” that he is allowing me to stay in India for seven more days.  He was totally unimpressed by either my status as a Professor Emeritus of the University of Michigan or my age (70+)
 
I called my friend in Ann Arbor again who then sent my old passport by FedEx.  Three days later the passport arrived.  Since I had to leave Kolkata for prescheduled visit to Bangalore , my niece took it to Mr. Talukdar . But due to lack of communication between the FRRO office and the airport immigration department my passport had not arrived at the city office even after 9 days.  My niece had to go to the FRRO’s office three times once waiting until 6 P.M. still they did not have my passport.  They only promised: “it will come soon”. At last,  12 days after my arrival, my niece got my passport.
 
From this painful and anxiety provoking experience I have learned a few valuable lessons:
 
1.    The loud talk about “Dual Citizenship” for Indian Americans is just a political hoax.
 
2.    The OCI card just does not have any value.  It is just a piece of expensive junk. You still need a visa every time you travel to India whether or not you possess an OCI card.  Only difference is that for the high price of getting an OCI card you will get a “life long ” visa.  A 10-year visa is much cheaper.
 
3.    When coming to India always consider yourself a foreigner and bring your visa with you, there will be no exceptions. Your OCI card is not a visa substitute.
 
4.     In fact, you will probably be treated worse than an ordinary foreigner arriving without a valid visa.  Because a foreigner especially a white Caucasian will at least be treated with courtesy and probably offered a temporary visa if there is no reason to deny it, but not you.
 
Please feel free to forward this mail to any of your friends who may befit from my experience.  Especially feel free to forward this to any influential politician or civil servant in India that you may know.
 
Sujit K. Pandit M.D.,Professor Emeritus, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan“

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

I have sent a copy of this email to Indian Consulate, Sydney. They may consider about enlightening Indian Australians re the value of the OCI cards. There are OCI card holders in Australia and they would be interested in this matter.

Dr Yadu Singh/Sydney/11th Sept, 2009

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New thinking and new beginning for the Indian community in Australia in the aftermath of Indian students’ troubles and media exposure: a time to show true leadership!

Hello every one!

We all know what was happening and who was doing what in regards to the International Indian students. We know about the rorts/scams. We know how our students were exploited by many including Indian people. We know how they are having a horrible time after some of the schools have closed down or about to close down. There is a general uncertainty around them. It is a very difficult time for them.

Indian Australians have had a great reputation for their standards and conducts. Recent exposure of the scams/rorts in regards to international education has undermined our reputation to some extent.

We all know that the overwhelming majority of our community members are decent people with impeccable character. After a conference recently, I and some of my friends went out with some of our Australian friends. We had the usual banter but the discussion did go to the students’ problems. Someone did mention that they were surprised with the rorts/scams involved in the international education and our people. These comments were quite mild and did not make me feel targeted. They were all friendly people.

When I returned home, I did think about what was said. It is obvious that our reputation has had a hit. Out professional people ie doctors, accountants, lawyers and bankers and also business people are the ones who will probably suffer to some extent.

We do have to take a stock of the situation and do have to do something about it too.

Many things can be done but my suggestions are listed here.

1. We make our voices loud and clear about our condemnation of rorts, scams, rorters and scammers.

2. We demand from the Australian and Indian authorities to deal with these issues with a heavy hand and stamp out such activities.

3. We do not associate with those who are involved in rorts/scams socially or in business matters. Most of us have a fairly good idea who these people are.

4. We ask our Indian Gov agencies in Australia to not associate themselves with these people, directly or indirectly, in any shape or form. They must remain Persona Non Grata.

5. We demand from the Indian Media to not support/promote or do business with people who are involved in rorts/scams. The community and the media have to work together to cleanse ourselves from the activities of some of us who do not have a qualm about doing anything to make money.

6. We start questioning our leaders about what they are doing and be willing to help them in a constructive manner.

7. We expect from the Indian media to question our leaders about their productivity, vision and “conflict of interest”. Shonky leaders need to be exposed, discouraged and excluded.

8. We support the largest Indian association [UIA] after it has set its house in order and reformed itself.

9. We encourage our people by recognising their work, commitment and genuineness and not criticise them for the sake of just criticism. Constructive criticism is good but we need to chip in with our support too.

10. We promote our pan-Indian identity vigorously, instead of getting ourselves too much  into our regional Indian identities. 

11. We do some genuine charity work for general Australian issues/projects to make a statement that we are as Australian as anybody else.

12. We network effectively among ourselves and general Australian community in regards to issues which are of significance to all of us, not only as Indians but also as Indian Australians.

The Indian Australian community has to show leadership.  We have a challenge and this is about our name, image and reputation in this country.The time has come for us to stand up and be counted for the challenge. 

Regards

Dr Yadu Singh/08-09-09

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Was Indian Media hysterical and imbalanced in its reportings of Indian students’ troubles in Australia?

04/09/09

Yes, certain sections of Indian Media in India were but they did help bring the issues into the focus. Thank you, Indian media for that!

I have seen NDTV show with Burkha Dutt and it was a great programme. Burkha Dutt did a balanced programme. I have seen a programme with Arnab Goswami and I would not call it a great show. Arnab Goswami has a style which does not allow others to speak. He is an anchor who talks too much. His programme was not balanced. 

Australian media picked up the issues only after the Indian media has done what it did.

I do believe the “Racist” tag for everything in Australia was over the top reaction. It would have been good if Indian media also has done the investigation on the scams/rorts. They should have spoken with established Indian Australians who have been in Australia for years.

Indian media is free and we saw it vividly recently. We are proud of that fact.

I believe that Indian media in India did a necessary/vital job but they would have done a better job if they had an access to the views from Indian Australians who have been here for years. They would have done a better job if they had their journalists in Australia. They would have done a better job if they had not over-played a “Racism” tag.

India media, I say this to you. We have lived here for quite long. We are proud of our Indian heritage and we are equally proud of  being Australians. Like other countries in the world, Australia does have a crime situation. It may be even a lot better if the crime statistics are analysed comparatively. Australia is not perfect but it is not a racist country. Every country including India has some racist people and you can see that in the NDTV show with Burkha Dutt. Australia is no exception.Racism is a crime here and Australian policies are not racist like they were in South Africa during Apartheid era.

Yadu Singh

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My views on other sites

 

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/thelostmaven/entry/first-class-ministers-third-class

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/nuclear-republic

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/are-we-losing-the-race

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/chinese-checkers

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Globespotting/entry/lessons-for-the-mea

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/sock-it-to-oz-where

 

Please do a google  on “Dr Yadu Singh” for more info.

Thanks

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Indian Consul General’s Community committee on Students’ Issues-What we did?

Information

yadu singh1

Indian Consul General’s Community Committee on Students’ Issues, Sydney, NSW was formed at the Indian Consulate on 6th April 2009. It did intensive work and completed its task in a very efficient manner. After accomplishing its mandated task, it dissolved itself at the end of June 2009 and communicated this to the Indian Consulate on 1/7/09.

The committee had Harmohan Walia,Vish Viswanathan, Shubha Kumar, Stanley D’Cruz and Dr Yadu Singh as its members. I was its co-ordinator.

This committee had done following activities;
#met students numerous times.

#organised a students’ forum on 16th May at Strathfield.

#co-organised a students’ forum with UIA in Strathfield on 6th June.

#arranged help to a woman student who was a victim of domestic violence.

#arranged help to 2 women students who were stalked by another Indian co-worker.

#arranged meetings with minister of education, NSW and her senior advisers and students from an aviation school-Work in progress.

#arranged a meeting with the president, NSW upper House [Mr Peter Primrose] and Ms Helen Westwood MLA and students.

#arranged meeting of an aviation school student with consul General [this student gave him his papers].

#arranged a meeting with a community minded lawyer and aviation school students.

#met the mother of a student of an aviation school. This lady’s husband had died only 4 weeks ago due to the serious stress involved in losing the money with the school in Sydney without the required outcome.

#arranged and participated in TV coverage of students’ issues on Channel 7, 9, 10, SBS TV, ABC TV, and Bloomberg.

#participated in the coverage on ABC radio, SBS radio, SBS Hindi radio, 2UE, JJJ, Indian Link radio, Radio UMANG, 2GB radio and SBS Kannada Radio.

#arranged talk-backs on these issues on SBS radio and Radio UMANG [98.5MHZ, Fridays,8-9 PM]

#participated in coverage on SMH, The Australian, Daily Telegraph, other newspapers and AAP.

#participated in the coverage on Indian newspapers in Australia [The Indian, Indian Link, Indus Age, The Indian Sub Continent Times, Indian Down Under].

#participated in TimesNow, NDTV, CNN/IBN, Headlines Today, AajTak and other Indian TV Channels.

#participated in the coverage on main Indian newspapers and PTI.

#involved with some top-grade Australian media programmes with wide audience in getting students’ issues covered.

#arranged funds for the accommodation for the relatives Mr Rajesh Kumar [the petrol bomb victim from Harris Park] within 24 hours.

#met commander Robert Redfern , Parramatta Local area Command of NSW Police several times.

#did what we could do to persuade/help the students when they were on the Harris Park streets for 3 nights.

#participated in the community leaders’ meeting with chairman, Community Relations Commission [CRC] at CRC HQ

#participated in a CRC organised meeting with Indian students at Parramatta RSL.

#participated in the community leaders’ meeting with the Premier, Mr Nathan Rees

#Met Indian Consul General and Consul several times

#helped a prominent Indian TV channel with a documentary on true situation in Australia. One of us [Yadu Singh] was the citizen Journalist.

#discussed and formulated the strategy to solve the problems of our students.

#submitted our strategy to the NSW task force and other relevant authorities.

#provided leadership in the matters relating to Indian students.

#gave our after hours and week-ends for students’ work and provided pastoral care to the needy students.

#provided/facilitated medical help to the needy students/their family members.

#met the visiting Indian journalists at the Consulate.
The committee members were all hard-working people with top-grade integrity. They did not have any conflict of interest in the matters relating to Indian students. None of them were involved in the students’ placement in a school [after taking a commission], running of any such school or running of any business which could have a potential conflict of interest in any manner.

All members worked with full dedication, cohesion and team feeling without any undermining of one another. This itself is a rare thing for an Indian group. We are proud of our work and ourselves.

We appealed to every person from Indian background to stay away from any leadership role if they were involved in any activity which did/could create a conflict of interest in these matters but we did not succeed in this matter.

We raised our voice forcefully against the exploitation of Indian students by some Indian employers.

We also appealed to the Indian newspapers and Radio programmes to ask questions from every leader [on students’ issues] about their involvementin any activity which  created a conflict of interest in those matters. We suggested that the  media should start with the questions on conflict of interests when interviewing those leaders.

Dr Yadu Singh
Co-ordinator

Reply to:  singhyadu@gmail.com

PS: The committee had completed its task and dissolved itself at the end of June 2009 by informing the Consulate officially on 1/7/09.

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Committee’s Strategies for Indian Students’ Issues in Australia

No doubt, our students have several significant issues and these issues have been raised with Governmental and Police authorities here. We are very confident about serious actions in these matters. There is no choice here because the International education industry in Australia worth $16 Billion [about $2-3 Billion from Indian students] is at risk if prompt actions are not implemented.

As you may know, a community committee has been formed in consultation with Indian Consul General, Sydney to help tackle these issues. The committee members are Harry Walia, Vish Viswanathan, Stanley D’Cruz, Shubha Kumar and Yadu Singh [Coordinator].Following is a brief description of issues and proposed action plans by the committee.

These issues are;

1.                     Safety and Security:

 

Brief Details:

Several cases of robbery & bashings of Indian Students in Sydney.

 

Proposed Action Plan

 

  • Educate students to REPORT the incidents to NSW Police. Reporting does not affect their VISA.
  • Lobby with Councils for a better lighting around Railway stations, car parks and  alleys etc
  • Lobby with the local councils for the installation of CCTV for surveillance of crimes
  • Liaison with NSW Police re under-cover policing, more visibility and patrolling in hot-spots
  • Educate the students  to be street-smart and be aware of their  surroundings
  • Employers have a duty of care and must arrange them to be dropped off at their apartments if it is beyond 10 PM
  • Explore the issues involving “Work-cover” matters in case of injury/assaults

 

2.                     Accommodation for Indian Students

 

Brief Details:

No assistance on arrival. Many students forced to share crowded apartments and Poor treatment by rental agents

 

Proposed Action Plan

 

  • Lobby with authorities re the provision of 3-6 months accommodation which must be organised by education providers at the market cost

 

  • Lobby with Immigration regarding  this requirement [Visa must not be issued unless accommodation confirmed]

 

3.                     Quality of training:

 

Brief details:

 

Many students are exposed to poor quality of training by educational service providers & shady, shonky or bogus institutions.

 

Proposed action plan:

 

  • Accreditation authorities/bodies to audit the quality of training randomly and frequently
  • Lobby with respective Govt. Agencies to take proper actions on proved cases
  • Surveys from the present/past students re the quality issues [anonymously]
  • Effective and prompt action by DEEWR/ACPET re alternate placement in schools/institutions or refund of the tuition fees if the educational provider goes out of business

 

4.                     Exploitation of Indian students:

 

Brief details:

 

Indian students are exposed to exploitation of all kinds & bullying in part time employment or by educational service providers. They are getting below-award wages in many cases. Some Indian employers are also involved in this type of exploitation.

 

Proposed action plan:

 

  • To advise & educate students about their RIGHTS in Australia
  • To educate them re the appropriate agencies to deal with such matters
  • To encourage/facilitate genuine students’ associations which are largely run by students themselves, not business people with hidden agenda and purposes.

 

  • Indian community leaders to understand the “conflict of interests” concept when taking the leadership role in students’ matters. They must stay out from a leadership role if they are involved with any business involving students [schools or consultancy].   
  • To lobby for establishing an  overseas Students’ Ombudsman

 

5.                              Health Cover, other appropriate insurance matters and  emergency insurance:

 

Brief details:

 

Lack of proper/current Insurances and coverage by some students, particularly when they are on bridging Visa

 

Proposed Action plan:

 

  • Pre arrival Information package-in India
  • Lobby with government agencies re the need for the medical cover and emergency including death insurance.
  • Proper medical insurance including death insurance must be a condition for the Visa and such cover must be current at all times during the stay in Australia

 

6.                Social issues:

 

Brief details: poor communication, insufficient participation in local community events & meetings and poor public behaviour in many cases

 

Proposed action plan

 

  • Communication/education through community Radio, TV, newspapers and website.
  • Encourage participation of students in community events
  • Accept that we are the ambassadors of India
  • Know what is expected in every situation.
  • Encouraging and promoting “when in Rome, do as Romans do” policy for our students
  • www.indianstudents.net.au will be launched very soon with info on Australian rules/regulations, Australian ways, expected behaviour and rights/obligations [There is now sufficient information in these matters in High Commission of India, Canberra and Australian Gov websites]

 

7. Brief details: Indian students are unaware how to deal with emergency situations

 

Proposed action plan:

 

  • To provide information packages on service providers and counselling services
  • Look into possibility of a Community Helpline for non-emergency matters
  • Set up a website and link it to the Indian High Commission/CGI

 

8.   Develop the Indian media leadership group for students’ and community issues. This would give an opportunity to exchange views, form strategies and execute them effectively. India Media group will help in dissemination of the information. We recognise that we need a good relation with Indian and Australian media to be able to do an effective advocacy of Indian students’ issues with various Gov agencies and relevant stake-holders.

 

9.   To set up an INDIAN Students’ Emergency assistance and BENOVALENT FUND

 

10. To seek actively sincere and genuine community members and students for the continuation of the outlined tasks. Most times, Indian community members are aware about the exploiters from our own community. We must take it as our social/community responsibility to do a social boycott of such exploiters. We believe that exploitation of Indian students by Indian community members is the lowest of low and a despicable behaviour.

 

11.  To lobby for some transport concession.It is available all over Australia except NSW and Vic. It would encourage more use of public transport which might also reduce the assaults/robberies of students.

 

12.  To bridge the gap between Indian students and established Indian Australians by reaching out to Indian students, inviting them to social gatherings, mentoring them and providing help whenever practicable/possible.

 

 

 

 

Dr Yadu Singh

Co-ordinator

singhyadu@gmail.com

 

**PS: 29/8/09

[1]. The above mentioned committee had prepared its report and forwarded its recommendations to the relevant authorities.

[2]. After completing its job, the committee had dissolved itself at the end of June 2009 and communicated its decision to the Consul General on 1/7/09.

[3]. This report is being published with the purpose of making the community aware of its contents.