It is another manifestation of racism, rampant in Australia. Racial attacks on Indian students have been recorded high in number in Melbourne, Victoria of Australia for last two to three years. Indian students studying in Melbourne are also high in number as compared with other cities in Australia. So, Victoria 
police are expected to be more sensitive towards racial issue that has been haunting the state. But, the Victorian police have proved otherwise.
police are expected to be more sensitive towards racial issue that has been haunting the state. But, the Victorian police have proved otherwise. Email Scandal
Top Victorian Police officials are caught in a sting operation conducted by an Australian newspaper “the Herald Sun,” joking about a video that showed an Indian passenger travelling on the roof a train being electrocuted when he was contacted with high-tension wire. The video was circulated by Victorian police officers joking, “It could be a way to fix Melbourne’s Indian student problem.”
The NDTV news web site reported on October 9, 2010 that some of the highest rankings officers had been implicated in the scandal that also involved pornographic material. At least fifteen officers will be dealt with disciplinary hearing in the coming weeks, Herald Sun report was quoted as saying by the NDTV news. The emails probed by Ethical Standards Department’s Operation Barrot contain pornographic, homophobic, racist and violent material.
Downplaying
After the Australian High Commissioner to India, Peter Varghese, was handed a demarche by the Indian foreign ministry on Saturday, he condemned the incident as “offensive and unacceptable.” But, he went on to say that the incident involved two police officers, neither of them were senior police officers. He added that he did not think we should tar the entire Victorian police with the action of two police officers.
This is nothing but trying to downplay the incident. The incident occurred in the very state where high numbers of Indian students are living and in which high number of racial attacks on Indian students had taken place. The Australian envoy pointed as unfortunate that the incident has detracted from the number of positive steps taken by Victorian police, referring the setting up of a round-the-clock help centre of Indian.
The Australia government had downplayed the Indian government’s travel advisory against travelling to Melbourne in view of risk of violence against Indians in first week of January 2010. The advisory was issued when an Indian graduate, Nitin Garg was stabbed to death in the city on January 2. The police denied racial motive but failed to confirm what prompted two 15-year old teenagers to kill Garg walking in the park. His belongings were left untouched proving robbery was not a motive.
Teenagers were arrested in most cases of attacks on Indians in Australia. Generally, teenagers can escape murder charges without severe punishment. Given this, do the Victorian police deserve scrutiny over charging teenagers over Indians’ killings?
Round-the-Clock Help Center
Mr. Peter has to take note that the necessity of setting up of round-the-clock help center itself manifests the rampant racism in Australia. It was further approved when the Australian Prime Minister has toured India earlier this year and asked the Indian students to continue to seek studies in Australia promising severe actions over attacks on Indians. The Melbourne police’s first reaction used to be that it was not racial attack but a random one whenever an attack occurred. The number of Indian students seeking studies in Australia has been halved in 2010 fearing attacks.
The Australian envoy mentioned that only two police officers were involved while the Herald Sun reported at least fifteen officers were involved. He also mentioned there were no senior police officers involved in the incident as if junior police officers could be condoned involving in racial abuse. This type of seeing things only demonstrates how the Australian authorities are casual in responding to such incidents of internationally observed racial discriminations.
UN Report
It would be appropriate here to recall the United Nations special rapporteur on indigenous rights released in August 2009, which said there was entrenched racism in Australia. It criticized the Labor party’s policy of displacing indigenous people from their homelands without even compensating. Labor’s predecessor Howard’s government had also come under sharp criticism for suspending ‘racial discrimination act.’ It implies both parties are pieces of same cloth regarding treatment of racism.
While the indigenous people of Australia are treated that way by the Australian government itself, no wonder, there was not a single person charged with racial abuse and treated sternly, even after the international outcry. The latest racial incident in Australia is a spat on the face of the governments across the world that believes in a myth, that the globalization promotes and glorifies pluralism and multiculturalism.
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