Lalit Modi, Obama and Australia

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Saubhik Chakrabarti Tags : Lalit Modi, Barack Obama Posted: Saturday , Jun 06, 2009 at 0146 hrs

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But I gave up asking questions after I saw Times Now describing a Melbourne demonstration by Indian students as India fighting back. India fighting back! What can you say to that?

Down under and downright racist, asked CNN-IBN on Face the Nation, and I steeled myself. But, and this is not a small but a big mercy, the chat actually produced a few sensible points, notwithstanding the ex diplomat-panelist finding a link between Australian cricketers’ sledging and a few Australian malcontents’ violence.

Watching the Beeb quiz Barack was particularly pleasurable after all this. It was a near-perfect interview, with the BBC journalist getting tougher as the interview progressed, making the Great Articulator work at his answers.

In this uncertain world, some assumptions are still safe to make. One of them would be that Lalit Modi knows, as we all do, who Barack Obama is. But just suppose he didn’t, and he saw the BBC interview, Modi might have thought who’s this guy, he can’t be some kind of a real big time hotshot, they are giving him such a hard time.

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saubhik.chakrabarti@expressindia.com

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rBy: dd | 08-Jun-2009 Reply | Forward " the instances of violent racism within your own nation, over centuries, far, far dwarfs any racist activities that have EVER transpired here, in Australia" like what? give me an equivalent of wiping out the entire aborigine population of Tasmania? Not a single aborigine representative in parliament? go on give examples.

I concur with Mark Ferguson's postion.By: Ken Carss | 07-Jun-2009 Reply | Forward As an Australian I'm most distressed to find that the media in India condemn's this country as being racist. Now, I must remind you in India that, the instances of violent racism within your own nation, over centuries, far, far dwarfs any racist activities that have EVER transpired here, in Australia. But the points that Mark Ferguson make are items I basically concur with. As for who is 'actually' responsible - ethnically speaking - for the attacks on Indian students is something I can't say. But I, also, know that whites are the absolute minority group involved. Unfortunately, Australia, like other Western countries, has had many, many 1000's of poor, uneducated,unskilled and socially dislocated immigrants, dumped on us by the U.N.H.C.R. And we have to carry them - It was a 'net' economic burden of $250 million on the public-purse, in 2008, for such. As a result, there is less revenue to spend on the aged and our own poor.

Racists come in all colours and creeds!By: Mark Ferguson | 07-Jun-2009 Reply | Forward Up until two weeks ago, there was absolutely no indication in the Australian media that Indians, studying in Australia, were being assulted and robbed. According to some reports, there have been several hundred instances of this over the past 12 months. So, upon hearing this I contacted various 'snouts' I have in Melbourne - I reside in Sydney - to clue-me-up on what's going on.In doing so, I have been reliably informed by two sources that "the majority of assailants upon Inians were [actually] non-Caucasians". Sadly, Australia has significant immigrant groups from Africa and the Pacific Islands, who are poor and marginalised from mainstream society - basically they arrive here with very limited wealth and education and, therefore, are condemned to live in, as the Americans say - 'projects'.So, get the facts straight about who is overwhelmingly behind these attacks. In closing, to those nongs who burnt an iffigy of P.M. Rudd as being a racist - his son-in-law is Chinese.

Good articleBy: Ayanangshu | 06-Jun-2009 Reply | Forward I liked the article and I agree with what it says. I have thought about this and in fact my feeling is that at times we are so conformist and reverential as a civilisation that our judgement is clouded and this saps our analytical and innovative abilities. In this day when we are trying to build great institutions this is a big challenge to overcome.

Excellent article.By: Pathik | 06-Jun-2009 Reply | Forward Good article. I like this series of articles on media; I hope they are listening. Like there is no alternative to good governance, there is no alternative to neutral and relevant journalism in the long run. Selling air-time to celebrities and political parties is probably the worst business model for any media house. I think shortage of talent is also hurting media like all other industries in India. I like to Saubhik Chakrabarti. He is one of the few neutral journalist in Indian media. His views are original and relevant. Keep the good work going, Saubhik. All the best.

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