USA brewer forced to rename “Kali Ma” beer!
I am sick and tired of people who use our religious symbols and pictures of our deities for commercial purposes, often inappropriately. Previously, Goddess Laxmi’s picture was used on a Bikini in Australia, which was withdrawn after protests. Someone used a picture of Goddess Kali in a night club in USA and even, Lord Ganesha was used for a sexual technique by a comedian in USA. Recently, Lord Ganesha was used in a satire in Australia, against which we ran a campaign. A Radio host in Sydney abused River Ganges for which we forced him to apologise last year.
If this was not enough, a brewery named, Burnside Brewery in Oregon, Portland, USA, used Goddess Kali in the promotion of its beer, calling it “Kali Ma” beer. The beer container even had the picture of Goddess Kali with 4 arms and severed heads of 3 men! It’s promotion used words like “Come worship the Black one, Kali, the ultimate reality of Brahma, this Tuesday”!
They have stopped this, only after, people protested against it vociferously. They will rename it shortly. They claimed to not know about the sentiments of the followers of Hinduism. How dumb were they? Did they expect that Hindus will “love” them for abusing our religion?
Goddess Kali, also called Ma Kali [Mother Kali] is a much revered deity of Hinduism and is worshipped by Hindus through India and overseas. I too worship “Ma Kali”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali
Someone rightly asked whether any of such people would ever use the symbols/prophets of other religions in this manner.
On a separate but still relevant note, I also believe that India must ban the use of religious symbols, names or pictures of deities in any marketing material in India, where it is a common practice to use such symbols in anything from “Guthka” to Taxis!
Hindus are peace loving and tolerant people, but this does not mean they will tolerate such blatant and disrespectful use of pictures and symbols of deities of Hinduism.
Yadu Singh/Sydney/17th May, 2012
Ministry of External Affairs [MEA], Govt of India has decided to offer Visa on Arrival in India for citizens of 3 more countries-France, Russia and Germany. It already had a policy like this for 11 countries-New Zealand, Finland, Luxembourg, Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Vietnam, The Philippines and Myanmar.
It is a good step as it should hopefully make it easier for tourists to go to India. India wants to double the tourist numbers in next 2-3 yrs. There is much work in progress on infrastructure involving tourism as well. India has so many attractions for people to visit it. It is not called “Incredible India” for no reason!
A lot of work has been done in Indian airports and facilities have improved significantly. Indian diaspora will keep visiting India for family and business reasons.
What is missing from the list is the names of countries like USA, Canada, UK, Scandinavia and Australia. India considers the risk of inimical actions by visitors from any country before that country is included in the Visa on Arrival list. It is a well-known fact that there are people in USA, Canada and UK, who have been involved, and are still involved in anti-India activities. US citizen, David Headley was in the news only recently. They will obviously be not welcome in India.
Australia is, I think, not in that category. There have been increasing numbers of Australians visiting India. It should be encouraged. While people of Indian heritage in Australia can apply for OCI [Overseas Citizen of India] cards which entitle them to travel to India without Visa for many years, but not every PIO [person of Indian Origin] has yet gone for an OCI card. My understanding is that a significant proportion of Indians do not have OCI cards. Visa on Arrival, if allowed for Australian citizens, will help such people, and of course non-Indian Australians.
If NZ can be in this list, I would have thought Australia can easily be in that list too.
India has clarified that they are not looking for reciprocal Visa on arrival facilities for Indian citizens in any country before including such country for Visa on arrival facility.
Australia qualifies for inclusion in the list also because both countries have good relations, which have become even better, after Australia’s ruling party decided to sell Uranium to India in Dec 2011.
My suggestion to Indian diplomats in Australia-High Commissioner of India and Consul Generals, is to lobby with MEA to include Australia for the Visa on Arrival facility. I also think that leaders from Indian Australian community should also lobby with Indian diplomats and Indian Govt to include Australia in this list.
Yadu Singh/Sydney/11th May, 2011
Networking the community: Twitter or Facebook?
Image via CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase
Networking the community: Twitter or Facebook?
**Dr Yadu Singh/Sydney, 11th May, 2012
Social networking is very hip these days. Facebook [FB], Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTube, Tagg, Digg and many more are increasingly popular in the world. According to EBizmba.com [an industry source], Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have 750 million, 250 million and 110 million estimated unique monthly visitors respectively presently. They are obviously very
Image via CrunchBase
popular in Australia too.
Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Former PM Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull, and Premier Barry O’Farrell are all into it. Indian PM, Man Mohan Singh, Shashi Tharoor, Ministry of External Affairs [Govt of India] are heavily into Twitter. Celebrities like Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey and even Dalai Lama are in it. It would not be wrong to say that almost anyone who is anybody in the world has Twitter and Facebook presence.
I am a keen and regular user of social media for some time for my community interactions. When Kyle Sandilands of 2DayFM made nasty comments against India and River Ganges, a Twitter “follower” sent me a link of the sound bites of his comments on my Twitter account. When Dept of Immigration & Citizenship [DIAC] had put an erroneous map of India [excluding Jammu & Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh] in its website, someone sent me a link via Twitter. We ran a multi-pronged campaign, which included Twitter and Blog, on these matters, which were picked by other media, leading to successful result. Similarly, it was on my Twitter account that I received a response from Ministry of External Affairs [MEA], Govt of India, about who is our new Consul General of India in Sydney a few weeks ago, after I asked MEA about it via their Twitter account! The list of examples does not end here.
Many events and functions all over the world, including events from Indian Australian community, have a presence in the social media, and are indeed heavily promoted via social media.
With more than 150000 people of Indian heritage in NSW alone and more than 350000 Indian Australians all over the country, there would be obvious benefits in having a better and effective networking among us. Radio programmes, most of which operate on a weekly basis, have some reach but they do not reach everyone because of time and language factors. Monika Geet Mala [Voice of India, Sydney, 8 hours], and SBS Radio programmes on Saturday and Sunday mornings generally do a good but still a limited job for obvious reasons. 24/7 subscription-based Radio programmes have their own limitations. Similarly, Indian ethnic newspapers in English like Indian Link, The Indian, Indus Age, Indian Down Under and Navtarang do a good job too, but their reach is again limited. This reach can improve however with improved content, fewer advertisements [difficult proposition] and better periodicity. Newspapers in regional languages-Punjab Times, Gujarat Times and Tamil Osai, also do a good job for their exclusive audience. Despite this, it is known that ethnic Indian newspapers, even collectively, do not reach a big proportion of Indian Australian community. More needs to be done, and indeed, can be done, using social media, which can easily complement the conventional media.
People often say that Radio programmes and newspapers are the favourite of more established and older group of Indians but younger and newer Indians are not that much into them. They are definitely more into Social media. My anecdotal experience suggests that Facebook is their preferred tool currently. Facebook however has many limitations, including privacy settings, which prevent it from becoming a real tool for mass communication. Creating a page in Facebook or “liking” a site there may overcome it to some extent, but this is yet to happen in a big scale. To have someone as a “friend” in Facebook, a request needs to be sent and then accepted by the recipient of that request. Twitter, on the other hand, has no such limitation. Anyone can “follow” anyone and join the network of that person. Twitter has now become a common, and possibly a favoured, way for politicians, journalists and celebrities to “broadcast” what they want to say to the world. People can also reach out to such people whenever needed, and that too without any hassle. Twitter, unlike Facebook, does not restrict the number of “followers” a Twitter account can have. Many believe that Twitter and Facebook, indeed, have become parts of mainstream media.
My view is that we should get more into social media. This should provide a better and more effective networking among us, even if we leave aside the fun component of being in the social media. With increasing numbers in the younger segment of Indian Australian community, this is actually a necessity.
I will like to see most, if not all, of Indian Australians in Twitter and Facebook, communicating and networking effectively and smartly.
If a non-geek like me can join social media and use it effectively, anyone can do the same. It is not difficult at all to be on Twitter and/or Facebook or any other social medium.
Have you got a “Face” on FB and tweeted on Twitter yet?
**Dr Yadu Singh is a Sydney based Cardiologist who uses Social media-Twitter [www.twitter.com/dryadusingh], Facebook [www.facebook.com/dryadusingh] and Blog [www.yadusingh.wordpress.com] regularly and effectively.
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
Related articles
- Ashton Kutcher’s Bollywood-Skewering Ad Pulled After Racism Outcry (eonline.com)
- Outcry Over ‘Racist’ Ashton Kutcher Advert (news.sky.com)
- Ashton Kutcher’s Popchips video: how racist is it? (examiner.com)
- Ashton Kutcher’s ‘Indian’ advert taken off-air (independent.co.uk)
March 31, 2012
Indian Australian community is getting bigger in Australia. Some estimates suggest that there are about 150,000 people in NSW alone and the total population of Indian Australians will be over 350,000 in Australia. We will know the true picture only once Census data is made public.
It goes without saying that there would be more issues when we have more people. People and even Govt authorities have commented about the huge number of our associations, and also “leaders”, although it is also logical, but not mandatory, that there would be more associations, when there are more people.
We have multitude of events and functions, which is all fine. We do have a lot of fun. We are a fun loving community. Nothing wrong in it either.
More associations itself is not the issue in itself but unnecessary competition, differences for sake of differences, and hostility in certain cases is certainly a problem and is not desirable.
If it was not enough already, we have started an unhealthy trend at looking at and classifying people depending on their political persuasion. It has created its own problems. It is amusing to see Liberal and Labor politicians interacting and exchanging pleasantries with one another quite easily but people from our own community consider people from different political persuasion as enemies. This is childish, undesirable and unhelpful.
We need to, and in fact, can do better.
Indians generally do OK wherever they migrate to but they can do a lot better, as a community, if things are done in a bit better way. This is certainly true for political representation from our community in Australian political system. We need to keep the examples of USA, UK and Canada in our minds.
There can’t be any dispute that we need to be more organised. We need to be more united. We need to be more supportive to one another.
We need to start thinking on the lines of “what do we need as a community? What does our community need? and how can we get those results?”
We need to form a think Tank or an advocacy or a Lobby group, involving and including people who are capable, have the strength of character and a capacity to think, to advance our community agenda.
Since someone has to start this process, I am taking this initiative. I have already had some initial discussions with some such people.
I suggest that people with;
- Leadership experience-present or near past
- Vision
- Capacity to think
- Capacity to communicate effectively
- Capacity to put community interests first
- Understanding of moral and ethical behaviour
- Understanding of conflict of interest
- Flexibility to understand others’ point of view and adjust their own
meet, discuss and chalk out the strategy to advance the interests of our community.
To decide who to include in this group, I must emphasize that it does not matter what political thought process they have, or which linguistic, religious or regional background [from India] they come from. Their outlook must however be Indian-encompassing diverse backgrounds.
I am sending this musing to a smallish group of people in the beginning but the numbers may increase or decrease as we go along this path.
Somewhere along the way, some key Indian media people will also be involved in this process.
Let a new beginning succeed in this venture!
It certainly needs the blessing and support from us all.
I have no doubt that rising above our differences and politics is a smart move for our community and there are clearly lot more commonalities among us, in contrast to differences!
Let us work on our “positives”, rather than just focusing on our “negatives”!
Dr Yadu Singh/Sydney/31st March, 2012
My community work so far!
My community work!
30th March, 2012
1. Community work in General:
- Leadership roles in Indian community Medical Associations and community organisations,
- Helping students in my district in India by visiting and giving scholarships etc.
2. My work as the coordinator 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.
The committee had Mr Harmohan [Harry] Walia, Mr Vish Viswanathan, Mrs Shubha Kumar, Mr Stanley D’Cruz and I as its members. I was its coordinator.
This committee had done following activities;
- met students numerous times.
- organized a students’ forum on 16th May at Strathfield.
- co-organized 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.
- arranged a meeting with the president, NSW upper House [Mr Peter Primrose] and Ms Helen Westwood MLA and Flying school students.
- arranged a meeting with a community minded lawyer and aviation school students.
- met the visiting 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.
- arranged and participated in TV coverage of students’ issues on Channel 7, 9, 10, SBS TV, ABC TV, and Bloomberg.
- participated in the coverage of students’ issues 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 students’ issues on SBS radio and Radio UMANG [98.5MHZ, Fridays, 8-9 PM]. Radio Umang has ceased functioning now.
- participated in coverage of students’ issues on SMH, The Australian, Daily Telegraph, other newspapers and AAP.
- participated in the coverage of students’ issues on Indian newspapers in Australia [Indian Link, Indus Age, The Indian, The Indian Sub-Continent Times and Indian Down Under].
- participated in the coverage of students’ issues on TimesNow, NDTV, CNN/IBN, Headlines Today, AajTak and other Indian TV Channels.
- participated in the coverage of students’ issues on main Indian newspapers like Times of India and PTI.
- involved with some top-grade Australian media programs like Four Corners from ABC, 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] at the request from Indian Consulate.
- Met and networked with Commander Robert Redfern, Parramatta Local area Command of NSW Police several times for students’ issues.
- Counseled students to stop further processions after the ones in Harris Park streets.
- participated in the community leaders’ meeting with chairman, Community Relations Commission [CRC] at CRC HQ.
- participated in a CRC organized 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.
- discussed and formulated the strategy to solve the problems of our students.
- submitted this strategy to the Consul General of India and 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.
- raised our voice forcefully against the exploitation of Indian students by some Indian employers.
- appealed to the Indian newspapers and Radio programs to ask questions from every leader [on students' issues] about their involvement in any activity which created a conflict of interest in those matters.
3. My community work beyond/outside the Consul General’s committee on students:
- helped the refund of >$12000 to a student of a Flying school.
- arranged legal assistance to the students from this Flying school from a solicitor in Sydney and Canberra.
- facilitated a good outcome between parties involving VETAB, Flying school and students.
- held several meetings involving VETAB Director and other authorities, the Flying school representatives and students in my office and VETAB offices.
- Worked and organized refunds/savings of >$300000 [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. 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.
- helped payment of >$2400 to a student which was originally denied by his employer.
- donated $500 to an Indian students’ students association.
- arranged sponsorship of $1000 for foods, meeting hall and public liability insurance for a students’ association.
- mentoring students for their careers and future in OZ.
- donated $500 to Australia Hindi Indian Association’s [AHIA] seniors.
- donated $500 to Fiji floods relief fund via International congress of Fiji Indians and organized $2000 donations from other doctors.
- donated $500 to Sanatan Arya Pratinidhi Samaj, Sydney.
- donated a good amount [>$2000] for needy/deserving causes involving victims of earthquakes, accidental deaths, injuries and illnesses.
- helping several students including assault victims for their work comp, treatment and issues involving their parents.
- liaised with NSW Police higher authorities in regards to the assaults of 2 Indians in Sydney.
- advised/mentored several others in regards to the steps they needed to take when they were assaulted.
- took leadership role on Indian Australian community matters in the media-Indian and Australia media [Chanel 9, SBS, NDTV, Indian ethnic newspapers].
- helped Radio National in making a documentary on students [see details in this BLOG elsewhere].
- helping community members from India and South Asia with a concessional fees structure. [a service worth more than $50000/year]. People from other communities, if they can’t afford specialist medical practitioner’s fees are also included.
- tried to clean the community leadership and making them accountable.
- exposed commission taking by some leaders of an Indian community association in Sydney.
- taking a leadership role against unfair portrayal of Australia as a Racist society by Indian media with interviews and debates.
- Took part in “Is Australia a Racist nation” debate in Sunrise programme of Ch 7.
- mentoring medical doctors from India in regards to their training and registration issues.
- Helped a House Surgeon who was facing exclusion from the medical work due to her unfair treatment in a Sydney hospital and then working actively with this young doctor and her supervisors including Hospital administrators to get her into the internship at a different hospital, thus leading to a successful outcome.
- worked as a catalyst in resolving the issues between Indian consul General, Sydney and some businessmen with a successful outcome.
- took an active and a leading role in resolving the issues between Indus Age [after a controversial ad] and the community.
- formed a community committee, Friends of International Students, www.fairgo4internationalstudents.org. against Visa Capping Bill in May 2010 and lobbied with the Govt 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.
- founded a national organization called National Council of Indian Australians [NCIA, www.ncia.org.au] with participation from all over Australia [all states and territories representatives] and co-chaired it.
- Founded Council of Indian Australians Inc., as the Umbrella body of Indian Australians in Sydney, and holding the position of its President.
- spoke as the leading doctor in the Health Summit, organized by GOPIO, Sydney, educating/informing people on Health matters on 4th Dec, 2010.
- 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.
- raised $7100 for Qld Flood relief on 28th Jan, 2011.
- took up the matter involving HINDI in the Australian national draft curriculum-Languages and wrote to ACARA, in addition to supporting Australian Hindi Committee.
- Organized India Day Fair, 7th Aug, 2011, at Parramatta Park, Parramatta.
- Organized Australia Day and Indian Republic Day celebrations in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
- Took part in “Clean Up Australia Day” events in Liverpool and Toongabbie in March, 2012.
4. Health Education Seminars for the Community:
- First such Seminar with GOPIO in Dec, 2010.
- Second such seminar in Dec, 2011.
- Third such Seminar with GOPIO, 28th April, 2012.
- Multiple Radio interviews and talk backs on Health matters.
- Anchored Radio UMANG Health Show.
5. Sri Mandir Temple matter:
- took up the issue of attack on Sri Mandir temple, Auburn and brought it to the national media.
- Attended meetings with Police, along with temple people.
6. Australian Uranium to India Issue:
- raised the issue of Australian 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.
- wrote an Opinion Piece on this issue in the prestigious Journal of Mining & Investment Australia.
- Wrote in Foreign Policy Research Centre [FPRC] Journal twice-one on India-Australia relations and 2nd on India’s Look East Policy, advocating sale of Australian Uranium to India.
- Raised Uranium issue during Australia Day/Indian Republic Day event, in Jan, 2011 and 2012, in presence of senior Australian politicians.
- Raised Uranium issue in India Day Fair, Parramatta on 7th Aug, 2011, in presence of senior Australian politicians, including Ministers.
7. Incorrect Map of India in DIAC [Dept of Immigration and Citizenship], Australia website:
- campaigned effectively for removal of an incorrect map of India [which had excluded Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir] in DIAC website and succeeded.
8. Kyle Sandilands & 2DayFM issue:
- campaigned against insulting comments from Kyle Sandilands, 2DayFM and forced them to offer an apology for his comments against India and River Ganges.
9. Lord Ganesh Vs Third Reich play and Goddess Lakshmi picture on a Bikini matters:
- campaigned along with others on these matters and made our concerns known assertively, via Blog, calls, Facebook and interview with The Age newspaper.
10. Community Relations Commission [CRC] Working Group on International students:
- participated as an active member of the working party with CRC on students including inputs for Z information card.
11. CRC Deepavali Committee:
- Worked as a member of this committee to have NSW Govt hosting Deepavali in NSW Parliament-the only such Indian event.
12 Ministerial Consultative Committee for Indian Australian Community in NSW:
- Minister Victor Dominello has appointed me as one of the members. I am working as a member of this committee to deal with issues relevant to Indian Australian community in NSW.
13. Networking with community and media:
- Blog: www.yadusingh.wordpress
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/dryadusingh
- Facebook www.facebook.com/dryadusingh
- LinkedUp coming up soon……..
I have not listed everything I have done or am doing. This blog has more information elsewhere and Google search can also provide more info.
Yadu Singh/Sydney/30th March, 2012
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, 2012 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
