Indian student attacks: fledgling democracies can do better

It means that the Indian assault stories are manufactured. It comes from news chiefs of staff in India who direct their reporters to focus on conflict stories and an overseas race story is prime conflict material.

People might rightly suggest, “surely the Indian assaults are not timed to fit a specific Indian news agenda”. But that’s exactly what has and is happening. There were allegations of assaults in the intervening months but not of a significant magnitude to “make a splash”. It’s far better to come out with all barrels blazing under a media campaign of “racist Australians”.

That sounds contrived doesn’t it? Surely news organisations don’t work like that. But they do, because conflict stories sell papers and advertisements, and the sad thing is that there is very little difference in news values between Indian and Australian mainstream media.

A few background points need to be made. As a media officer for Democrat Senator Sid Spindler in 1992, I helped investigate a number of nasty incidents concerning the National Front in Brunswick and Broadmeadows in Melbourne. They were targeting and harassing Muslim women. The police were called but very little action was taken.

Working at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 10 years later, I heard similar reports from international student counsellors that Asian students were being targeted in the northern and western suburbs. Once again very little was done.

So in the case of Melbourne, the chickens have come home to roost and Broadmeadows is Premier John Brumby’s electorate.

In India these race-based stories play right in to the hands of extremist Hindu nationalist parties such as Shiv Sena who have threatened action against the Australian cricket team if they tour India (Mumbai). Race stories get blown out of proportion very quickly.

Recently India's Junior External Affairs Minister Preneet Kaur said the attacks on Indians were a major concern and students should avoid traveling to Australia. This is an incredible over reaction which penalises both bona fide Indian students and Australia’s education industry. But it’s a natural reaction to ongoing conflict stories.

Diplomatically the assaults have been handled poorly. The Indian Government knows that of the 20 or so assaults, many were opportunistic in nature. It knows that any assault on an Indian person in Australia is not necessarily a racist attack. The problem is that once the media plays the race card, in an immature democracy, the government is more likely to do the same - which plays in to the hands of extremists.

In Australia, it took the government three weeks to make any statement about the attacks and until late last year seemed to dismiss the attacks as trivial. This riled not only the Indian media but also the government in New Delhi.

Many Indian students need to work in Australia. They work as taxis drivers, as security guards, petrol pump attendants and in call centres. Many work in night jobs and being new to Australia, they don't know which suburbs to avoid.

“One of the main lessons to draw from these unfortunate incidents would be to introduce a pre-departure briefing for Indian students. Indian students should also make sure they undertake proper enquiries before going to Australia to pursue courses at some of the lesser-known universities and institutes,” said Rupakjyoti Borah in his recent On Line Opinion article.