Sydney rally demands equality; Indian’s car burnt in Melbourne

Categorized | Political

Sydney rally demands equality; Indian’s car burnt in Melbourne

Posted on 07 June 2009 by ashok

By Ashok Kumar

Moninder Singh of UIA at the Sydney rally

Belying all expectations that the rally will be called off, nearly 2000 students and community members gathered at the Sydney Town Hall and this morning and voiced their concerns about growing violence and inequality towards Indian students. The students appealed to the government to stop treating them like “cash cows”. The Federation of Indian Students in Australia (FISA) that had till two days ago said they did not extend support to the rally, assumed leadership of the small groups of students from various universities in Sydney.

Meanwhile, Gautam Gupta , founder of FISA in Melbourne reported burning of a car belonging to a 22-year-old Vikrant Rajesh Ratan. Ratan, who hails from Ludhiana said had used all his savings to buy the car He said the vehicle was burnt last night outside his home. Ratan said that two other cars, also belonging to Indians that were parked next to his vehicle had also been damaged during the incident.”We were sleeping when it all happened. We heard the fire alarm of the car. When we went out to see what happened we saw the car on fire,” he said.

“Since a lot of SMSes had been sent to the students, it had become difficult to cancel the rally even as the news of cancellation of the rally had already spread throughout the city,” said Sumit Purdani, FISA representative in Sydney. He said initially there were between 1000 and 1500 people gathered at the Town Hall and Police had blocked the main George Street but as the numbers kept swelling we decided in consultation with police to move to sprawling Hyde Park nearby. As a result, hundreds of students who arrived late were left stranded at the Town Hall.

Asked what they had achieved since action has already been taken by the State and Federal Governments, Sumit, a double post-graduste in Commerce and Fashion Management said the basic aim was to gather public support and making them aware of the plight of the Indian students. He claimed the rally was peaceful but cautioned some opportunistic elements hitherto silent on the issues, to take centre stage when the mikes are set up. They tend to break peace.

At the rally, the National Union of students (NUS) president David Barrow said that the government policy toward foreign students was discriminatory. “For too long, the education sector and the government have treated international students like cash cows, not like human beings,” Mr. Barrow said.

He said overseas university student fees were rising, landlords and employers were taking advantage of them and they couldn’t survive under visas limits of a maximum of 20 hours of work a week. “It is not acceptable to have 10 or 15 students crammed into an apartment being charged $150 a week (each),” Mr. Barrow said.

“And we know that there are bosses out there who say to international students ‘you work 30 hours a week and we’re going to pay you under the minimum wage’.”

The students also called for Australia’s education and immigration policy to be overhauled so overseas students are protected from dodgy landlords and employers and receive the same benefits as domestic students.

Navjot Singh told the rally he was recently slashed across the face with a knife. He implored police to do more to protect foreign students, saying racist attacks occurred on a regular basis in areas of Sydney with large Indian populations.

Sumit opined the racism is created by the government agencies. “I would call all this a result of poor police response.” He said he lives in Sydney Uni lodge and paying over $ 500 as rent for one room. Almost every day we are abused by an Aussie resident asking us to go back. There have been over 70 complaints of racial remarks against him with the police as well as the lodge management; There is no response from police for over a year.

Rashmi Kumar, president of the Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA), said “now we can stand together, domestic and international students – all together, to try and get an education that’s not based on exploitation, on racism, on violence and discrimination,” she said at the rally.

NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell said every resident deserved the same protection under the law.”Whether it’s someone of Indian background or someone of any other nationality, we need to ensure police properly respond to attacks upon citizens in our suburbs,” Mr. O’Farrell told reporters.

Meanwhile, SUPRA has decided to hold a signature campaign at the Sydney University against the violence and submit a memorandum to the authorities.