SAY IT AGAIN

ON HINDU COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA’S JAWAN CENOTAPH

A letter written by historians Len Kenna and Crystal Jordan to Mr. Prakash Mehta, President, Hindu Council of Australia on 2 April 2019, and shared with Indian Link.

Dear Mr. Prakash Mehta,

We have come to know that your organisation is holding a service for Anzac Day on the 13 April 2019 at the Jawan Cenotaph at Greenway Oval Cherrybrook at 1 pm, honouring Indian Anzac Servicemen.

1. This service is highly disrespectful verging on sacrilegious because the names included on the Cenotaph are incorrect and the list only includes Sikhs and Hindus, not Muslims, Anglo-Saxons or other people of Indian Origin who were Anzacs who served in the Australian Imperial Force and fought for Australia.

2. This Cenotaph is discriminatory and unnecessarily political due to the religious nature andidentity of the platform (Hindu Council of Australia) and exclusion of some deserving members of Indian Anzacs for the Cenotaph and commemoration, thus causing much friction and division within the Indian Community in Australia and the Worldwide Diaspora.

3. “For those who made the ultimate sacrifice” what does this mean? In our research to date: Four Anzacs of Indian Origin died in Belgium in WWI the others survived and returned to Australia.

4. These soldiers were of Indian sub-continental backgrounds, representing various faiths and a significant numbers were from the Sikh, Muslim and Christian religions. It appears jarring and inappropriate to use a faith-based platform i.e. Hindu Council of Australia to be the platform for the Cenotaph and Ceremony. We believe quite strongly that Hindu Council of Australia is not an appropriate or acceptable platform for such work.

We urge you and others, especially Mr. Julian Leeser MP, Minister Matt Kean, The Hon Philip Ruddock, Mayor of Hornsby Shire, RSL Club, Department of Veteran Affairs and Government of India officials to look into this matter and take a remedial action in this matter as a matter of priority.

Yours Sincerely

Historians Len Kenna and Crystal Jordan

(We have been researching and publishing history of Indians in Australia since 1985).

Where In India

This turned out to be a tough one: we asked you to identify this large freshwater lake with floating islands called “phumdis”.

Reader Charmi Kapadia Shah identified this spot correctly as located in Manipur state: Loktak Lake.

I wasn’t expecting to react as strongly as I did when I visited Jallianwala Bagh.... I certainly wasn’t expecting to cry.

Justin Rowlatt Great-grandson of Sidyney Rowlatt. The protest at Jallianwala Bagh was against the Rowlatt Act, named after him.

Shortly after I moved to Australia someone commented on how good my English was.

A) I'd moved here from NZ, b) my grandma was an English teacher, and c) English is widely spoken in India, where my parents are from. Assumptions make people look stupid.

Shalailah Medhora Political reporter, ABC

ACCEPTING OUR DIFFERENCES, ACCEPTING OURSELVES

CARL BUHARIWALA interviewed Khayshie Tilak Ramesh, the Victorian Multicultural Commission's new Youth Commissioner. Bendigo Community Health Services wrote: Congratulations. Such a wonderful acknowledgement of the work and effort you put into community.

Ming Go wrote: Good message, be who you ARE!

Sylvester Swampillei wrote: Great work Khay

Reine Pannell wrote: You. Are. Awesome.

Caption Contest

What’s the chitchat here between Lilly Singh and Ranveer Singh?

Suman Arora wrote: Ranveer: Meri shadi ho gayee. Lilly: I can tell by your clothes.

Vandana D'souza wrote: Ranveer: Should we pretend we’re in Bohemian Rhapsody or in Star Wars? Lilly: Whatever! Just “gay” for it!

Charmi Kapadia Shah wrote: Well, we know that 'Singh is King'!

Raghu Rules wrote: Stop being silly; by the way, I’m Lilly. Rishi Singh wrote: Lilly: I need to dress down with you around, Ranveer.

Indy Saggu wrote: Who's keeping whom relevant?

Rachna Gupta wrote: You sure are blinded by my pouty looks! Saba Nabi wrote: Who’s the show stopper here? Of course it’s me again!

WHO WORE IT BETTER?

ALIA BHATT OR ALESSANDRA AMBROSIO IN ROBERTO CAVALLI?

For Pulwama

RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA wrote about students from The University of Queensland Indian Student Club who raised nearly 120,000 INR for the families affected by the Pulwama terrorist attacks.

Lovely Khabra wrote: Well done Sahil, good gesture. Keep it up.

Paviter Kumar Noori wrote: Great work, guys!

Atiya Gazali wrote: Great job. Now make sure it goes to the Pulwama martyrs’ families not the middleman.

Ulhas Bhovar wrote: God bless you kids!

Seema Sreekumar wrote: Shaabaash UQISC. Proud of you, my son Sid and all the hard working committee members of UQISC. Keep up your good work.

Saphira Toor wrote: Good on you guys!

Vinaya Rai wrote: Well done Sid Sree and everyone else!

The third and most substantial #AUSINDEX to date - great to see this significant Indian Ocean exercise going from strength to strength.

Ray Griggs Australian Navy ex-chief on bilateral maritime exercise

Alia Bhatt

65%

Alessandra Ambrosio 35%

Rajagopalan S wrote: Interesting how your readers always pick the Indian personality as better…

I've run from the North Pole to the South Pole; I've run Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, across Australia, across the US, China, you name it. But I don't know why I bothered going to all those places when I could have just gone to India and experienced everything in one year. India is everything rolled up into one.

Pat Farmer ultra marathon runner at the recent Tourism India Roadshow in Sydney

BY PAWAN LUTHRA

AFederal election survey conducted by Indian Link has shown that the two leading parties are neck and neck as far as Indian-origin voters are concerned - but there’s a surprise find, an unprecedented rise in support for a third force.

It’s still a while to go before the Federal elections of 18 May and both major parties are still in first gear. Yet, both have been pretty upfront about their policies. The Coalition has gone hard on their economic credentials, the Labor Party is emphasising its health platform, especially the benefits to cancer sufferers and their families.

Both parties also come in with their shroud of worries. The Liberal party has had a rapid change of leaders, more in the party room rather than at the polling booths - Tony Abbot, Malcolm Turnbull and then Scott Morrison. The Coalition’s hard right seems to have an extraordinary hold on the policies of the party – climate change, energy management, immigration policy etc. The Labor party goes into this election with a swathe of new taxes or removal of tax benefits, such as abolishing the benefits of negative gearing for future investment properties, halving the capital gains tax concessions, cancelling the franking credits to select pensioners and other tax tightening policies.

It’s early days yet and one is sure as the campaigns roll out, there will be more incentives doled out from both platforms. The political messaging will be tightly controlled and the race to the finish on 18 May could get frantic and mistakes can be made (Remember Labor’s- or rather its leader Michael Daley’s - brutal last week at the recent NSW elections?).

So, what do Indian Australians make of it all?

At this stage, it seems that the community is equally disillusioned with both major parties - and this is where the surprise find is - support for a third force, the Greens, is up like never before.

Yet, the economic management of the economy and employment issues is appealing to the Indian Australian voters and bucking the national polling trend gives the elections by the narrowest of margins to the Coalition.

Indian Link’s election survey, undertaken online and face to face at select Indian spice outlets in Sydney on the weekend of 13-14 April, gathered data on voting intentions from 632 respondents. 85% of those surveyed were from NSW, and 5% each from Victoria, South Australia and Western