Attacks on Indians "damaged" bilateral ties: Aus HC in India

Natasha Chaku

Melbourne, June 13 (PTI) Australia's top diplomat in
India has admitted that the spate of attacks on Indians in his
country has "damaged" bilateral ties and fears that the
upcoming free trade talks may remain 'quarantined' among other
things as a fallout.

Blaming the Indian media, particularly the 24-hour
cable news channels for the negative coverage of the attacks,
Australian High Commissioner in New Delhi, John McCarthy said
that the relationship between the two nations will take time
to recover.

McCarthy, who was quoted by 'The Weekend Australian'
here said that because of India's 'voracious' TV channels fear
and outrage was being created among Indians in both countries.

"While our bilateral relationship with India --
including talks over a free-trade agreement -- would probably
remain quarantined from the fallout, the new, negative
perception of Australia would linger," he said.

"It's done damage," McCarthy said adding "You can't
have three weeks of that sort of television without the
perception of Australia among Indians being damaged. The
question is how much?

"My sense is we will overcome it, but it's going to
take time and it's going to need a pretty close look at how we
prepare students for Australia. We need to be much more
conscious of their safety," he said.

Australia had almost 95,000 Indian students in its
various educational institutions. At least dozens of racial
attacks have taken place against Indian students in Sydney,
Melbourne and Adelaide in less than a month.

Australia's best allies were India's political and
business leaders "who can see this problem in perspective ...
and can compare it with what happens in other parts of the
world, including in their own country, which they frequently
make comments to me about," McCarthy added, in a reference to
India's historical caste and communal clashes.

McCarthy, who will head back home in August, has
been spending weeks in damage control mode, giving interviews
and meeting people to try to dispel the notion the attacks
were all racially motivated.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had also phoned his Indian
counterpart, Manmohan Singh, to assure him Australia is doing
all it can to address the problem.

McCarthy said most Indian media eventually gave
context to the attacks by reporting that many victims lived in
outer suburbs and took public transport late at night, making
them more vulnerable to crime.

But the cable channels were "dominated to a
significant extent by the comments coming out of the student
unions which did not always reflect the total student
membership or the Indian community".

"Two or three stories go on and on and very violent
and disturbing pictures are shown over and over again. What
happens then is immediately people with relatives in Australia
get on the phone," McCarthy said.

"This seems to cause far more debate about the
situation. Then you get the next stage, which is probably a
demonstration, which looks much worse, and it fuels on
itself," he added.

He said Australia had thousands of Indians students
and "they haven't all been writing letters and emails. A
number of them have been saying 'we're fine'. But they weren't
the ones getting heard." PTI NC
PMR