Will Gurshan Singh’s tragic death show us the way?

The recent tragic death of 3 year old Gurshan Singh Channa in Melbourne has served as a gruesome warning to young families in Australia about the dangers that are present in the bowels of the community. It is the sort of crime that absolutely distresses everyone.  The boy’s parents  had arrived in Australia from India just two months back and were about to leave for India in a week when the tragedy stuck.

The death was surrounded by mystery initially and with no apparent clue for the motive coming up in initial investigations some people had begun to link it to racial tensions. Murder or disappearance of any toddler in our community attracts rightful public attention and the tragic death of Gurshan Singh has bought the Australian Indian community back into media focus. The tragedy has also bought to fore many issues and lessons.

The case has again bought into focus the communal living style of some Indians who tend to stay in larger groups within their homes. This home at Melbourne suburb of Lalor was accessed by 20 different people with 4 families staying together. The allegations that the accused Gursewak Dhillon, a part time taxi driver in Australia was here on a false passport have not helped as well.

However the outpouring of support from the mainstream community has been very reassuring. People from all walks of life came forward to offer their help to the family.

If you look at the past incidents of violence against Indian students in Melbourne, there were many clear patterns emerging.

After every attack, Indian students would converge for a few days and appear for a few minutes on National media and then forgotten.
After every attack, Indian media especially the electronic media went hammer and tongs over Australian establishment accusing them of racist attitudes.
After every attack, Australian police would claim the incident was not a racist attack and was instead an opportunistic attack.

It now seems apparent that all the stakeholders had learnt their lessons from the past episodes and behaved rationally after this incident.

As soon as the police were notified of the missing child, a massive search was started with 1 hour and police intensified the search  with 15 police units which included police dog squad and air wing. Supported by 50 SES volunteers they conducted a  massive search of the Lalor area.

This time the Victorian Police Commissioner Simon Overland, was thankfully not fronting the media and Deputy Commissioner Sir Ken Jones did a fantastic job of managing the media and reassuring everyone that they were on top of it. He said, “The message to all communities is the Victoria police, we stand ready to take on these sorts of investigations. Any missing child, any suspicious death of a child, we will investigate to the absolute of our potential. Beyond that I would say to the Indian community and to India, they can take my assurances on that that anything and everything that can be done will be done.” This time Victorian police was just using the right language which was so reassuring.

The Indian media reporting on this issue was free of the hyperbole this time and they did report objectively without casting racist aspersions on the wider Australian society. They were generally supportive of the way Australian police was handling the case and did not link this with the student violence issue.

Victorian Premier John Brumby who has committed lot of gaffes in the past was briefed several times on the investigation as were Diplomats and federal ministers. For the first time it appeared that Australian authorities were keeping in mind the political sensitivities needed for handling this case. John Brumby also spoke to Indian High Commissioner Sujatha Singh and advised her that “no stone will be left unturned” in the murder investigation and informed her that Victoria Police would draw on Commonwealth resources if necessary to solve this case.

A visibly shocked Kevin Rudd offered condolences to the family and said he wanted to know of the facts about this case. Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna’s statement in the Indian Parliament – Rajya Sabha was very balanced and he said the police responded immediately when notified of this case.

Keeping in mind Indian traditions, the homicide detectives, removed their shoes at the front door on entering the home and left shaking hands with those who escorted them.

This sad incident has taught everyone valuable lessons and the best tribute we can offer to Gurshan Singh, is to work in the same manner in the future, if there is any unfortunate tragedy.

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