Back from vacation, Aamir Khan has joined the protest against the recent attacks on Indians in Australia. “Most disturbing to hear about racist attacks on Indians living in Australia. Quite a shame,” he says, “While this doesn’t mean that all Australians are racists, the frequency and seriousness of such attacks, I think, calls for an extraordinary reaction from the Australian authorities.”
In the last three weeks, six Indian students have been attacked in Australia. Whilst these have been in unconnected incidents and equally motivated by crime or thuggery, the attacks have raised concern amongst the 95,000 Indian students in the country and the 200,000 Indian citizens or residents. “Even the Australian police are biased,” says Adnan Khusro, a Melbourne student. “We are scared of going to them. Look what happened yesterday, peaceful protesters were violently attacked by the police. If this does not stop, soon Asians will boycott Australia.”
Others, however, are taking a more measured view. Kavi, another student comments, “We are sure that not all Australians are racist. It is wrong to brand Australia as a racist country. It is extremely unfortunate that these acts have happened with Indians but to think about it, they have been happening since forever with Asian diaspora all across the world.”
Following Amitabh Bachchan’s decision to turn down an honorary degree from Brisbane University in protest at the attacks, the Federation of Western India Cine Employees has urged producers to think twice about filming in Australia for the time being. “The recent attacks on Indian youth by Australians is condemnable,” explains General Secretary Dinesh Chaturvedi, “We have decided not to schedule film shooting in Australia till things get back to normal. Whilst we don’t say Australia is a racist country, the inaction on the part of the government has forced us to stay away from them.”
