Why is the Indian Community Worried
There are times when each nation needs to face its demons and confront them to become a better nation and a better state for its citizens. We are living these times now and the violence against the Indian students and the developments thereafter have made the Indian community worried.
Some older migrants from India want to distance themselves from the newcomers and accuse the Indian students of living in ghettos and failing to assimilate with the Australian culture. There has been a fierce debate going on in the Indian community with the older generation members blaming the students for not adopting a more Australian type outlook which makes them easy identifiable targets. The arguments of the older Indian community are specious. These students may not have been behaving in the way we want them to and some of these students do speak loudly on trains and have loud Bollywood ring tones on their mobiles, but this is no excuse for anyone to assault them. Just as any scantily clad women has a right to walk freely or any Muslim lady has a right to wear a hijab without the fear of being assaulted, these Indian students have a right to exist and live peacefully.
Some of the incidents both in India and Australia are worrying. The cover page of The Australian newspaper, carried low level Indian politicians burning the effigy of PM Kevin Rudd. There have also been demands in India by Bal Thackerey that Australia players should be excluded from IPL. It has been reported in Australian press that a former Indian Parliament speaker Manohar Joshi has given a warning that Australians living or travelling in India could face revenge attacks if Indians living in Australia continued to be targeted in hate crimes.
To all the street level Indian politicians, this is a kind request to please stop making political capital out of the misfortunes of a few unfortunate kids. Run your dirty politics inside your own electorates. Leave us. We don’t need you. 
By and large majority of the Indian community appeared satisfied till recently with the telephonic discussions between the two prime ministers and formed the view that more media ranting or rabble rousing will yield diminishing returns and is counter productive. However the increase in the number of assaults and tit for tat vigilante actions of some of the Indian students has the community worried.
Tempers have really flared in the Indian community here and the recent incidents whether racially motivated or not have caused uneasiness. The students have valid demands and like everyone seek protection and implementation of proper law and order so that they can attend to their daily chores. At this moment mob mentality is ruling and the Indian vigilante groups are riding a tiger. It may be easier to mount but in the end there is a risk of being consumed by the tiger itself. The sight of peace loving Indian community members acting as vigilante groups on the streets has the potential of wiping away all the steady gains which the Indian community has achieved over the years.
As tempers cool down and the Australian establishment looks in to control the situation, the past attitude and performance of the police force combined with their declining staff numbers hardly inspires any confidence. For the students to cool off, the first response has to come from the Australian police who need to win the confidence of these people.
Well Done Minister
Armed with a Law degree from Government Law College in Bangalore, SM Krishna also studied in the United States, graduating from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and The George Washington University Law School in Washington D.C, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and later in the faculty where he taught International Law. He also actively participated in campus politics during the John F Kennedy years in the 1960s. His experience as a student in US and his law background gave the newly appointed External Affairs Minister an arena where in he could relate easily.
He displayed presence of mind and did not hesitate in raising the pitch of Indian response and demanded a strong response from the Australian establishment. He applied the right strategy in dealing with the attacks on Indian students and instead of hush hush tones as on most occassions in the past, the Indian diplomacy was in action.
Had SM Krishna remained muted, Indian TV channels would not have picked up the threads of the story and the course of events would not have been the same. Well Done.
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