1anme 1a oves

The Indian students' crisis lies all but forgotten by the very people that started it all

11 .,. BY ' PAWAN LUTHRA

Juse ovet five years ago, the Indian media turned its blowtorch on Australia and in one broad brush, painted the country as racist and unsafe for Inclians. With little research or analys is, the attacks on Indian students \Vere loud ly denounced as racist and headline after headline screamed that there was a;ihad against Indians in Australia. That most of tl1e racist claims wer e unfounded and the problems random was soon clear, but tl1e media bad moved on and Australia was another story of the past.

ow six years down the track, tl1e Indian media descended on Australia to report not only o n me G20, but also tl1e great .Modi mega evenc which now seems set to follow the new Indian Prime Minister whenever he goes overseas. If there are over a 100 TV channels in India, it seems more tl1an half were in Australia trying co find that special stor y about Australia and Australians chat could make good co\7erage.

Fortunately, the time difference was such tl1ac the stories filmed in Australia at midday could be telev ised li\7e during the next morning's peak viewing hours. While some TV channels sent only one ere\,~ the anchor and the can1era man, a number sent two crews, one each for their Hindi and English p la tforms

And so, for four days running, viewers in India saw the front of me Allphones Arena, with TV reporters pointing excitedly co the posters behind them of Kacy Perr y who was slated to perform there only days after PM Modi spoke at the venue.

The TV-wallahs were busy scouting for ideas to fill in their time - and no doubt co justify co their bosses in India that their trip was money well spent. This of course allowed a number of Indian Australians to get theLr 15 minutes of fame on Indian televis ion. \'\Thile the Modi event orga nisers had nm up a number of activi ties for them, such as a visit to Sanskrit schools or a wal k down L ittle Inclia in Harris Park, the visi tors down under wanted their own stories.

One crew spent a few hours on the harbour on tl1e Sydney

Showboat filming the breathtaking cabaret show by the Moulin Rouge girls in their full dance costumes and feather headgear ot a s ingle TV crew though, decided co relook at the stud ents' issue with a fresh perspective: why did you not hunt clow n Saurabh Sh arma, the MeJbourne youth who was brutally attacked o n a train , and whose CCTV footage yo u aired all -day long on a loop, creating the diplomatic impasse between the two countries that ha s taken ye ars to rebuild? If you had, yo u would have foun d out that he is happy and health y, and trm7 elled by th e same train at the same time of night each night, l o ng after the inci dent, and that a compassionate Australian dentist actually paid all of his medical costs. Now would that not hav e been a story?

Weaving these shots through interviews of guests on what they expected from the Modi v isit, would have made for great vis uals no doubt, but we wond er what the staunch Hindu allies of the BJP thought of tl1is.

Another crew got a g roup of local Indians toge ther who recited poems about the Indian Prime Jvlinister.

Another spent a day fil ming at the local radio stud io w ith talkback about the PM Modi visit.

And even as restaurants witl1 a Modi flavour menu were visited, the Australian garbage collection system (w ith cliiferent bins for refuse, recyclable bottles and paper) were exp lain ed to v iewers in India as a supplement to 1vfodi's s1µatch bharat campaign. In fact, by hook or cro o k, the Modi- ficacion of Indian Australians, or of the Australian lifestyle, was grabbing prime time in India.

And w hil e all of this \Vas o n, experts were paraded on split screens in India as tl1ey spoke about mutual opportunities between the rwo countries. \"qhil e the concept was good, it was painful to watch so -called experts who bad little idea about ground realities. According to one 'ex pert', there are over 700,000 Indians in Australia currently, and numbers will be up to 1,000,000 in three or four years Sure, inflate the initial number by 40 per cent and be out by over 1 0 years in your analysis, as lon g as tl1e facts do not get in the way of a good sto ry! (Post the event, one 'expert' even claLmed chat arendra J\fodi had staged the entire Allphones Arena event hin1self by flying planeloacls of peo ple from India co Australia.)

The anchors on India's many news channels threw to their reporters i n Australia fre quentl y, but too often mouthed the \Vords "Indo-A merican relationship" , perhaps by sheer force of habit, instead of "lndo- Australian", and nearly all of them referred to tl1e Anstralian PM as Tony 'Abort'. Let's just hope thi s d oes not translate into -action as far as the renewed relationship bet-ween the two countries is concerned!

Mean while, for I ndi an viewers themselves, the news segments were sometimes ske tch y, and rn a.ny people actually believe that the "Modi Express" is a regular train that n ow runs between Melbourne and Sydney, inaugurated to coincide with i\-focli's vis it.

As for the local JndianAustralians, everyone claimed repeatedJy mat they we re 'excited' about tl1e PM's visit, but failed co s ay why or to elaborate any further.

But on '.Modi magic Monday', the TV-wallahs clid tbe.ir job well, taking up positions around Allphones Arena as ho rd es of Indian Australian s found their way to the stadium Local media also jo ined in with four channel s - 7, 9, 10 and ABC - also having their teams at the venue. With plenty o f colour and w-ith the clashing of thegarba sticks and the drums and the exub erance of the people, there were some fantastic filming options.

And a s the crowds moved into tl1e arena, the TV crews followed and a lot of Australia beamed its way into the living rooms of India. Friends and fami lies seeing their loved ones from down under on their TV sc reens wer e busy calling up o r Wbats-apping.

Tbe media filled its ro le to inform and entertain and tl1e chest beating about rac ism and stu dent violence were a thing of the past.