Modi in Australia: down under bliss for Hindutva

With all the fanfare, the stadium event was not all it seemed. One beady-eyed journalist noted that a venue with a seating capacity of 18,500 seemed less than packed. Vivek Astri, covering the visit for The Wire, noted "empty chairs scattered throughout the expansive venue." It struck him as rather odd, given the fact the tickets had been gratis, with registration noisily promoted through such platforms as WhatsApp months before. "Curiously, there seemed to be a veil of secrecy surrounding the ticket distribution process, lending an air of privacy to the entire event."

The empty seats did nothing to discourage the organisers of the event to lend a note of exaggeration, one claiming that there were as many as 25,000 people who had arrived. Indian journalists covering the event complied with the formula.

To their credit, the hosts of the usually light-hearted, cerebrally soft breakfast program on Channel Seven did press Albanese about the event. Modi, inquired Sunrise presenter David Koch, had reduced press freedoms, discriminated against minorities and was "accused of watering down democracy. He sort of, he seems a bit of a tyrant?"

This, suggested Albanese, was not of interest to Australia. It was "not up to me to pass a comment on some of the internal politics in India which, as a democracy, has a range of views, which is a good thing." Modi was "popular with a majority of people." If only such standards were to apply to the governments of other states.