A Lost Opportunity

Termed as one of the largest gathering of Indians, in the Southern hemisphere, UIA Australia India Friendship Fair 2009 was graced by a galaxy of politicians including the State Premier Nathan Rees, Barry O’ Farrell Leader of State Opposition, Laurie Fergusson as Representative of PM Kevin Rudd and other State and Federal MPs. It was the perfect opportunity for the UIA President to put forward the case for providing better security for Indian students and addressing some of their highly publicised concerns. But what did the UIA President Aruna Chandrala do?

She did what she can do best, that is to stay mum. There was no mention of Indian foreign minister SM Krishna’s visit, no mention of reassurances given by Australian authorities, no mention of what UIA had done in this regard and no message at all for the affected Indian students. The community has been let down and a key opportunity lost.

Every time UIA President spoke a new sentence it looked as if she would now talk about the students, till it finally ended with a whimper. The worst faux paux had already been committed, thereby hurting the interests of Australian Indian community particularly Indian students. How embarrassing? Guess what these leaders would have told their party members, there is no problem with the Indian students, the Indian community is happy here.

Here was the biggest issue the Indian community has been facing since they started migration to Australia and an issue which has been making headlines since the past 4 months and generated more interest than any other story in India and Australia, but these issues were hardly on the mind of the UIA President. Almost every other speaker on the podium made a direct or an indirect reference to the students issue but for the host of the gathering, this was a non issue which needed no attention. Premier Nathan Rees spoke forcefully when he said that anyone who was in NSW should feel safe and used the occasion  to announce that any student whose college had been closed would be transferred to another college and those students who had paid tuition fees would have the full opportunity to get education services for that. The Indian Consul General made a powerful speech when he used Gandhiji’s example to explain the Indian diversity and the need to spread kindness. He also used the occasion to announce that affected students could visit the Indian consulate every Friday between 11 and 4 pm to discuss their problems. Some of these words should have been spoken by the UIA President.

Instead of focussing on serious issues, the UIA president burst into a song when she sang the full version of Vande Mataram. An item which could have been easily left for the many enthusiastic performers to evoke patriotic feelings. According to members who attended the meeting with the Premier at the height of the students violence issue two months back, the UIA President did not utter even a single word then.

That the President of the largest Indian community organisation in Australia did not raise the most important issue affecting the Indian community raises questions about her judgement. This is the equivalent of the OzCar scandal in United India Associations. Malcolm Turnbull is already facing heat on his judgement in the OzCar scandal and the UIA president should be made to face the same heat. Like me, many members has expected that the President of Indian communities largest organisation would use the occasion to articulate a stand and issue a veiled warning to the political leaders that the Indian community was watching their actions and they better take note.

Given this episode it is wise to question if the message or contents of the pitch are debated beforehand, at all in the UIA GC forum. The Committee does have few good intelligent members whose collective intelligence would have never allowed the omission of the students issue in front of a galaxy of Australian politicians.

In the future, any new President’s message needs to be debated and discussed internally, so that such errors of judgement can be prevented. The new President may have a steep learning curve to climb, but this is a cost which the community can’t bear at this critical juncture.

I wish the UIA President would have given as much detail and attention to her speech as she did to her sartorial elegance. It would have gone a long way in positioning the community concerns in front of mainstream politicians and media. Alas the chance is lost now.

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