Saturday, January 09, 2010

India – Australia on an ugly spat. Time for media to cool down

 

After the recent burning of an Indian student in Australia (following 2 murders last week), India is really angry with Australia. To make matters worse, Victoria police has not progressed much in these three cases. They entirely deny racist motive. What irks India is that after 100+ attacks on Indian students, Australian authorities have still not tightened up the screws.

While we may find issue with efficiency of Australian police, it is outrageous to term them as racist. Even though the cartoonist of the Delhi paper – who drew Aussie cops as the racist Ku Klux Klan members – says the exaggeration is to provoke them into a positive action, such things can really be offensive in the West. It is like those ill fated Danish cartoons. You don’t want to provoke an entire society just for the action of a few individual criminals.

Hopefully, India-Australia relationships turn to normal soon. Let that not get derailed by a couple of criminals.