2,000 Indians Protest Australian
Anti-Indian Violence
By Dr Gideon Polya
01 June, 2009
Countercurrents.org
On Sunday 31 May 2009 about 2,000 Indians protested in the heart of the Melbourne Central Business District (CBD) against brutal, racist violence against Indian students (for a detailed report see the top newspaper in Melbourne The Age:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/indian-
anger-boils-over-20090531-brrm.html )
The latest attacks were on 25-year-old Sravan Kumar Theerthala (in intensive care for 2 weeks after being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver) and Baljinder Singh (still recovering in The Alfred Hospital, a week after he was stabbed in the stomach with a screwdriver by two men as they robbed him of his wallet).
The Victorian Police have promised to try to make things safer but have also endeavoured to put an “opportunistic crime” spin on the violence against Indians e.g. see recent reports of police comments in relation to murderous anti-Indian violence e.g. “Another Indian student stabbed in Australia pleaded with attackers”: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/
another-indian-student-stabbed-in-australia-
pleaded-with-attackers_100197919.html ; “4th attack in Australia: petrol bomb hurled at India”:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/4th-attack-in-
australia-petrol-bomb-hurled-at-indian/93646-2-7.html .
However it is not just overseas students from India who are being targeted by racist thugs. Thus the former President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Indian-born Dr Mukesh Haikerwal was savagely bashed into unconsciousness by a gang of racist thugs in 2008. Three teenagers have now been charged with this appalling crime (see “Indian born doctor’s teenage attackers charged in Australia”:
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal
tag/australian-medical-association ).
Many taxi drivers in Melbourne are Indians (notably Punjabis). Repeated violent attacks on taxi drivers led to a huge demonstration by taxi drivers (many of them Indians) in front of the central Flinders Street Railway station last year (the same location as for the Indian demonstration yesterday) – the Victorian Government was forced to act and rapidly legislated for pre-payment of fares late at night and protective screens for drivers (see “Melbourne taxi drivers get better safety measures”: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/melbourne-taxi-drivers-get-better-safety-measures_10043579.html ).
Here is a very personal story. Two dear Indian-origin women friends of mine – one an “Italian –looking” Anglo-Indian the other a much darker Malaysian-Indian, and both very good-looking young professionals in the finance sector – were walking in the Melbourne Central Business District (CBD) dressed in the standard smart, black business suit “uniform” of professionals in their area. They were accosted by a gang of racist thugs who demanded of them “go back to where you come from” (the standard catch-cry of White Australian racists. The Anglo-Indian woman – a very gutsy and feisty woman who knows how to stand up for herself – was born in Melbourne and was very upset.
These young Indian women could have been YOUR sister, daughter, niece, wife, partner or friend.
Of course the reality is that Australia has always been a deeply racist country and continues to be involved in genocidal atrocities (see “Australia’s secret genocide history. La Trobe, “Bundoora Eucalyptus” and Black Crimes of White Australia”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/22128/42/ ). However in recent decades the racism has been covered over publicly by a thin veneer of Orwellian “political correctness”. Thus pro-war, pro-Zionist Australia has been involved in all post-1950 US Asian wars that have been associated with Indigenous Asian excess deaths totalling 25 million – yet in “politically correct racist (PC racist) Australia “racial vilification” is variously an offence (see: “Australian genocide. Oz ignores Aboriginal Iraqi, Afghan and Climate genocides”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12578/42/ ).
In 2008 the Rudd Labor Government said “Sorry” to Indigenous Australian for the Stolen Generations (up to 0.1 million Aboriginal children forcible removed from their mothers) – but the Aboriginal genocide continues (9,000 Indigenous Australians die avoidably each year) and the Labor Government continues to apply race-based laws to Northern Territory Aborigines who are forbidden to see, buy, sell, read, consume or transport things that all other Australians can; have been removed in a race-specific way from the protection of the anti-racism 1975 Racial Discrimination Act; and can be kicked out of their homes and Homelands without any legal recourse (see “Stolen Generations. Australian Aboriginal Genocide” : http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20242/42/ ; “ Aboriginal Genocide. Racist White Australian child abuse and passive mass murder“: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15140/42/ ; and “La Trobe University, “Bundoora Arabesque” and Australian Aboriginal Genocide”: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya120807.htm ).
The last decade in particular saw an enormous increase in Bush-ite- and racist Zionist-promoted anti-Arab anti-Semitism, xenophobia and Islamophobia under the extreme right wing, pro-war, racist and violent Conservative Coalition Government. Now under the extreme right wing, pro-war, racist and violent Labor Government things have, if anything, become worse with the Labor Government complicit in Palestinian Genocide, Aboriginal Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide and Climate Genocide – thus Australia is one of the very worst greenhouse gas (GHG) polluters and is committed to continued GHG pollution that is now likely to kill 10 billion people (2 billion of them Indians) this century (see “Climate Disruption, Climate Emergency, Climate Genocide & Penultimate Bengali Holocaust through Sea Level Rise“: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/
climate-disruption-climate-emergency-climate-genocide
-penultimate-bengali-holocaust-through-sea-level-rise ).
A very dear, middle-aged Indian lady friend of mine just happened to witness the 2,000 Indians demonstrators in Melbourne’s Flinders Street on Sunday (she was heading for the iconic, central Flinders Street Railway Station after seeing an exhibition about Indigenous Fijian and Fiji Indian immigrants to Australia at the Immigration Museum down the road in Flinders Street). She asked one of the young male demonstrators why are you protesting and his reply was simply: “They all hate us”.
Indians – and indeed all decent folk - should act against the anti-Asian and anti-Indian genocidal policies and practices of racist Apartheid Australia by (a) informing others and (b) taking action by eschewing avoidable business dealings with all racist persons, institutions, corporations and countries (notably genocidal Apartheid Israel and genocidal Apartheid Australia). Thus demonstrator Suresh Chokkakula: said: “ [agencies promoting international study] painted a picture that Australia is very safe. But it is not safe; the picture is very different. We do not feel safe, we do not feel welcome, in this city. My advice to every Indian student now who wants to come to Australia is, 'Please don't come'." (see:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/
indian-anger-boils-over-20090531-brrm.html ).
Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003: http://www.amazon.com/Biochemical-Targets-Plant-Bioactive-Compounds/dp/0415308291 ). He has recently published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ and http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya) and an updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History, Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2008: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ). He is currently teaching Biochemistry theory and practical courses to second year university agricultural science students at a very good Australian university.
