When Sydney’s popular community leader and cardiologist Dr. Yadu Singh circulated an e-mail in early January that his group is organising Australia–India Day on January 24 or 25 which will be one of its kind, it was hard to believe since the general perception of all Indian functions is the same naach-gaana and khaana.
But the ambience and flavour of the celebration proved it was “khana khazana” and a lots of memories to cherish as never ever any function organized by any Indian Association/s received such a tremendous response for such an event. With more than 500 prominent Indians, representatives from over 20 Indian Associations, and star-studded politicians from both the Labor and Liberal parties from State and Federal level attending this event, the Ryde Civic Centre function hall was bursting at seams. And, Dr. Singh himself led the celebration of Australia National Day and the Indian Republic Day by taking control of the proceedings.
Some of the highlights of this program included the benevolent fund for the Indian Diaspora and more than 40 political leaders and party workers from both the Labor and Liberal parties gracing the event. ALP took 2 tables and Liberals took 1 table in function. Prominent people from the political leadership included:
Ms Maxine Mckew [Parliamentary secretary, Fed Gov & representing Prime Minister of Australia], Hon Mr. Joe Hockey [Shadow Treasurer, Fed Parliament & representing Hon Tony Abbott, Leader of Opposition in Fed Parliament],Hon Mr. David Borger [NSW Minister], Hon Mr. Peter PriMr.ose [NSW minister], Hon Ms Barbara Perry [NSW minister & representing NSW Premier], Ms Angela D’amore [Parliamentary secretary, NSW], Hon Mr. Laurie Ferguson [Parliamentary secretary, Fed Gov], Mr. David Clarke MLC [Shadow Parliamentary secretary & representing Mr. Barry O’Farrell, Leader of Opposition, NSW], Mr. Phillip Ruddock [Shadow Cabinet secretary, Fed Parliament], Mr. Greg Smith [Shadow Attorney General, NSW], Hon Ms Amanda Fazio [President, Upper House of NSW], Hon Ms Tanya Gadiel [Deputy speaker of NSW parliament], Mr. Chris Hayes MP, Mr. Michael Richardson MP and Mr. Shaoquett Moselmane MLC.
Clr Mark Adler – Canterbury Council, Clr Tony Hay – Hills Shire, Clr Barbara Burton – Hills Shire, Clr Vaseekaran Rajdurai – Holroyd Council, Clr Bill Whelan, Hawkesbury Council, and Crl Trent Zimmerman, North Sydney Council also attended this function.
Mr. Amit Dasgupta, Consul General of India, Sydney and Mr. Gautam Roy, Consul from the Indian Consulate, Sydney also graced this function with their presence.
In a highly emotional and charged up speech, Mr. David Clarke [representing Mr. Barry O’Farrell] from the Australian Liberal Party, said that if his child goes to India he is sure the parents in India would treat him as their son and look after him. On a similar manner, he urged that the Australian Moms and Dads to treat the Indian students as their own sons and look after them. He went on and paid tributes to India and its traditions by saying that ‘India practices what it preaches.
Ms Barbara Perry [representing the Premier of NSW] spoke eloquently about the contribution of Indian Australians and declared that violence against Indian/international students will not be tolerated. She said that students are very welcome in NSW. She was dressed in Indian attire which people appreciated with enthusiastic applause. She spoke about the interest of NSW premier and Government in working actively with the Indian Australians.
Joe Hockey, spoke about the Liberal party’s full committment to its policy of supplying Uranium to India. Dr Yadu Singh, while responding to Joe Hockey’s speech encouraged the Labor party to consider a similar policy and implement it as early as possible. He explained that the issue of NPT is not relevant in case of India after India has been given an India-specific exemption from NPT by the NSG [Nuclear Suppliers’ Group] in Vienna last year.
Ms Maxine Mckew also spoke very highly of India, Indian Australians and multi-culturalism in Australia. She also explained that India and Australia have a great relationship and it will get even better despite some hiccups. She was very impressed with the enthusiastic participation of women Indian Australians in this function. Her speech generated a thunderous applause from the audience.
All the speakers from both the major parties spoke highly of India, Indian traditions, Indian sports – in particular Cricket, and the Indian political landscape, which stood the test of times for more than 62 years since securing independence from the British rule in 1947. All speakers were enthusiastically applauded by the audience.
Mr. Amit Dasgupta, the Consul General of India touched upon two fundamental issues. One related to the Indian students and the Consul General paid glowing tributes to the NSW Police force and the political landscape of NSW for containing the student issues in NSW. As a clear indication to vindicate this matter the Consul General said that out of the 1340 attacks on Indian students in 2009, only 13 such attacks occurred in the state of NSW and South Australia – the States which fall under the jurisdiction of Mr. Amit Dasgupta. He further stated that these statistics do not however condone the vast majority of attacks on Indian students that occurred and still occurring in other States. He urged that the law enforcement agencies and the political parties should work closely in this direction and ensure safety of the Indian overseas students
On a second major issue, the Consul General spoke about exploitation of the Indian students by Indian business – in particular the food/restaurant industry whereby the restaurant owners pay less than the wages stipulated under the labor law. He insisted that all business owners must do ethical business. He further went on to say that ‘I will not attend any function where he is not assured of suppliers to that function follow ethical standards in conducting their businesses’. The entire hall including all the politicians from both major parties echoed with a big applause.
The overwhelming response to this event is an indication of the ‘changing times’ and ‘changing outlook’ to the leadership and responsiveness to the current issues and challenges being faced by various sections of the Indian migrant and student community living in the State of New South Wales.
Surely the representation of more than 40 students from the International Student community is an indication that they want to hear from the leadership and also from the large number of politicians on their views and actions proposed to be taken to address their issues. The Chief of VETAB [Ms Margaret Willis] and her assistant, Mr. Shona Tannock and Mr. Robert Redfern, Commander, Parramatta Police command [representing NSW Police Commissioner] were present as our guests. Ms Willis’ and Mr. Redfern’s presence was meant to send out the message that quality of training and safety of students are 2 key issues in relations with Indian students.
It is noteworthy that students had paid at a very subsidized rate and all others including the organizers, except a very small numbers of VIP guests, had bought the tickets for their participation in the function.
The representation from more than 20 Indian Associations is a clear indication which shows they are bewildered with the current policies and practices, and financial management of our current top associations and leaders. The one fundamental reason for this large support stems from the fact that they found a new leadership in the AIDFC which can respond to the current issues and make representations at both Australian and Indian Government levels with a solid and united voice. Some of the major Indian organizations who supported the event included the India Club, The Sydney Sangat, Australian Punjabi Business Association, Australian Indian Business Congress, Punjab For Ever, The Australian Tamil Association Inc (ATA), Hindi Samaj and the Aligarh Muslim University Alumni Association (AMU) in addition to others.
ACR International Tours and Travels added spice to the event by offering one return air ticket through Singapore Airlines for auction. The auction added nice A$1,000 to the much badly needed money for the ‘benevolent fund project’. Mr. Navneet Chaugar was the winner of this ticket. For the raffle draw which helped us collect about $750, the Good Guys offered a Plasma 26 inch TV which was won by Councilor Bill Whelan of the Hawkesbury City Council. Congratulations to the winners!
Media-both Indian and Australian, were represented with Indian Link, The Indian, Punjab Times, Hamare Rang [Pakistani] and most importantly, Channel 9 team present in the function. This was the very first time that Channel 9 crew was present in an Indian function.
Many other ethnic community leaders also graced the occasion with their presence.
The Future – the AIDFC Benevolent Fund
AIDFC has made a number of public announcements at the function to the community as a part of its commitment for the future. Prominent among them is the creation and implementation of the AIDFC’s Benevolent Fund. We are committed to get this fund going and make a significant contribution to the well being the Indian migrant and student community, our fellow Australian community and finally to our mother country – India.
Finally we promise you that we will provide you a solid leadership and will representation at various levels. We will have clean governance in all matters of the AIDFC management – in particular finance management. We will adopt an ‘open book’ approach in all these areas. Consideration will be given to broaden the current AIDFC to include more Associations, individual members and businesses. The community will be getting more frequent updates in the coming weeks and months!
Ghungurus Group of Shalini Patel was the provider of the entertainment programme which was of 50 minutes duration and had the mix of Bhangra and Bollywood songs/dances. Every one enjoyed it tremendously. Ms. Shubha Kumar gave the vote of thanks.
