Category Archives: Indian Media

May 15 2010

Time for Aussie TUTORIAL to the “education” world!!!

Before Minister Sibal left for Australia in April, I, in my blog had suggested that he should take some tips from the Aussies regarding Vocational Education and any collaboration to focus on the Vocational Education and Training in India will be to India’s benefit.

As it turns out, Minister Sibal, not just did that but went one step ahead.

“India plans to restructure its college admission policy to allow vocational education students lateral entry mid-course into mainstream higher educational institutions for the first time following the Australian model.”

“Under the restructured policy, such a student will be allowed to join an appropriate engineering course mid-way — directly in second year, for instance.”

“The impetus for the plan came following a trip by HRD minister Kapil Sibal to Australia last month. Australia allows lateral movement of students between mainstream and vocational education courses. Close to a lakh Indian students went to Australia last year alone, mostly to pursue vocational education courses.”

These are only the first paragraph and the last paragraph of the article COLLEGE SWITCH IN SIBAL PLAN from The Telegraph of this day. You are welcome to take a look at the link for the full article.

India is not the only one, which seems to be taking notes from the Australians.

BBC has reported (see link) that

“Unscrupulous” recruitment agents who bring bogus overseas students into the UK are being targeted in an international initiative.”

“The British Council has for the first time brought together countries including the UK, the US and Australia to try to keep out such students.”

“A meeting of immigration and education authorities in London, the first of its kind, is intended to co-ordinate a multi-national response. Higher education has become a globalised market and the British Council says there needs to be an international approach to tackling fraud.”

“There are also concerns about “multi-national businesses which open up money-making colleges and then close them down, leaving students stranded”.”

“An inaugural meeting of English-speaking countries brought together representatives of the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Irish Republic. The UK Border Agency was among the representatives from the UK.”

“Pat Killingley, the British Council’s director of higher education, said competitor countries need to work together. “We have common interests – we’ve all built up reputations for quality in higher education that we want to protect,” she said.”

Not just the British that find need to exchange notes with the Aussies, Americans have gaped for long at the lead taken by the Australians. Take a look at the following slide used by AIRC (American International Recruitment Council) highlighting Aussie ESOS as an example for US to follow… It will be quite obvious…

These are only a few as examples. I found the American SEVIS to be inspired by the PRISMS. British too have openly admitted being inspired by the Ozzie point system and also they have just recently moved from visa letters to CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) aping the Ozzie electronic COE (Confirmation of Enrolment).

I did a blog earlier this week titled WILL NZ EVER BE A DESTINATION FOR INDIAN STUDENTS. This blog resulted in me receiving so many emails with differing views and also many who were aghast as my being so candid. This blog too indicates that even NZ has lessons to learn from the Ozzies.

Lets certainly give the Aussies their due here. They are in the lead. 2009-10 is actually going to be part of their experience and 2011-12 will build upon this current year. Lessons are to be learnt. Following the Twenty-20 World Cup Semi-final match, I need to say that they have “hussey-ed” the world and India too stands “siballed”.

Apr 29 2010

US-fed Education data misleads the world and themselves…

India believes that USA is the No. 1 destination for Indian students. Indian Minister for HRD has stated this too. Indian academics and students will be spontaneous in their acknowledgement of the same. All based on “spinned” data.

In reality, this is complete non-sense and is not backed by data at all.

The data released by IIE purposely highlights the “enrolment” figures and not focusing on the actual number of Indian students proceeding to USA each year. Even if that data is also in the document, it doesn’t figure in the press releases primarily because that will make USA look poor in comparison to Australia and United Kingdom in the Indian market. And how can USA accept that reality. Hence, the spin…

The press releases get picked up by the media and it reports…

The number of students from India enrolled in US universities and colleges crossed 100,000 for the first time ever this year even as international enrollments in America registered the largest percentage increase since 1980, defying broad economic trends.

The Indian numbers went up 9.2 per cent from 94,563 in 2007/2008 to cross 100,000 for the first time to retain its position as the top place of origin for international students in the United States. China remained in second place, although there was a sharp 21 per cent spike in students from China, going up from 81,127 last academic year to 98,235 this year. South Korea (69,000 to 75,000) remained in third place.

This is the eighth consecutive year that India has remained in the top spot.

Authors of the report said the findings do not reflect the full impact of the past year’s economic downturn, since decisions to come to the United States to study were made before the financial effects were fully felt in the sending countries.

SOURCE: TIMES OF INDIA (LINK)

There is nothing inaccurate in the information provided above but it simply confuses the Indian students, Indian governments and Indian media to believe that there were more than 100000 Indian students choosing USA during 2009. The real actual start numbers hide behind the enrolment figures and nobody wants to point to it.

The catch is in the word “enrolment”. An enrolment data is a cumulative data and includes continuing students from previous years. If there is a slowdown in the economy and there are less jobs, students tend to continue as students by re-enrolling to keep their visas in USA. This leads to an increase in enrolment statistics even if the actual visa numbers are falling. This happened post 9/11 for a few years and is happening now again.

The reality is that less number of Indian students applied to USA in 2009 and USA actually became No. 3 choice destination for Indian students.

Shocked. Let me provide the  actual data now… Education Journalist Ishaani Duttagupta reported in TOI titled US F1 visas fall 25% (link)  …

It’s official. There were less F1 student visas for the US issued across India in financial year 2009 (Oct 08-Sep 09) than the previous FY08. In fact, 25,860 issuances in FY09 actually translates into a whopping 25% decline over 34,510, which was the number issued last year.

Most experts and consultants feel that the fall in numbers of Indian students choosing to go to the US for higher studies is because of the fall in financial aid offered by institutions rather than any visa strictures.

And even as most experts agree that lower financial aid and scholarships are the reason for the drop in number of Indian students going to the US, many are hoping that as the recovery kicks in the numbers will improve.

So, enrolment rises even when the actual demand for that country has declined. There is evidence that this is not unusual but the fact is that reliance on this data can lead to wrong planning and even incorrect implications. Not just journalists tend to use the terms “enrolments” and “student-starts” interchangeably, even institutions get misguided. I have visited several institutions and very few of them take a detailed analysis out of the falling “actual” numbers and just gloat over the increasing enrolments.

Interestingly again, while the world knows that the number of students going to Australia from India has fallen steeply in recent months(possibly even 50-70%), the enrolment of Indian students has actually increased in the same period due to less numbers moving into residency or work permits due to the tightening of the process. This is akin to what happened in USA. Will it be right for Australian planners to give much credence to the enrolment growth at this time???

Look at this report that shows up the Aussie replay of the US enrolment-actual syndrome.

Despite the increasing value of the Australian dollar compared with other currencies, and widespread reporting across Asia of attacks on Indian students, the nation’s universities continue to attract more foreign fee-paying students.

The total number of foreigners enrolled in universities, schools and vocational and English language colleges also rose, by 6%, to almost 390,000 in the 12 months to February.

More worrying for the institutions that have come to rely heavily on fees from foreigners is the fact that in the same period, the number of students beginning a course this year fell by nearly 3% to 98,000.

Yet universities managed to boost their commencements by 10%, bringing the total number of overseas newcomers on campus to 31,000.

China and India were the largest markets for both enrolments and commencements in all sectors. China accounted for 27% of total enrolments and 29% of commencements while India accounted for 17% and 9.4% respectively.

In the higher education sector, the two largest markets were also China, with almost 34% of enrolments and 39% commencements, and India, with 11% enrolments and 5.4% commencements.

SOURCE: UNIVERSITY WORLD NEWS (LINK)

Hence, anyone wanting to really gauge the demand for an education destination should ONLY look at the fresh student entries into that country during the year. Enrolment statistics are only “red herrings” and will misguide planners.

Also, the fact is that

  • USA was No. 3 choice destination for Indian students during the year 2008-09 after Australia and United Kingdom.
  • USA has been No. 3 choice destination of “full fee paying” students from India for a few years now.
  • USA gets far less “vocational” Indian students than several countries.
  • USA is however No. 1 destination for “research” students and for “scholarship” students.

There you go… another MYTH shattered. Did I wake you up???

Mar 19 2010

Red Herrings… indeed: Summarising last 8 months of Indian-OZ tussle

”The whole racism issue has really coloured this debate in an unhealthy way, because when our media either seizes on that, or the Australian media in turn respond critically, we are essentially dealing with not black or brown or white, but red herrings,”
SHASHI THAROOR, MOS External Affairs, Government of India.
Quoted in THE AGE.
If Minister Tharoor believes that the whole racism issue is nothing but red herrings, then first lets understand what “Red Herrings” are…
The expression red herring is an idiom referring to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance. For example, in mystery fiction, an innocent party may be purposefully cast as highly suspect through emphasis or descriptive techniques; attention is drawn away from the true guilty party.
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The idiomatic sense of “red herring” has, until very recently, been thought to originate from a supposed technique of training young scent hounds.[2] There are variations of the story, but according to one version, the pungent red herring would be dragged along a trail until a puppy learned to follow the scent[4]. Later, when the dog was being trained to follow the faint odour of a fox or a badger, the trainer would drag a red herring (whose strong scent confuses the animal) perpendicular to the animal’s trail to confuse the dog.[5] The dog would eventually learn to follow the original scent rather than the stronger scent. An alternate etymology points to escaping convicts who would use the pungent fish to throw off hounds in pursuit.[6]
In reality, the technique was probably never used to train hounds or help desperate criminals. The idiom probably originates from an article published 14 February, 1807 by journalist William Cobbett in the polemical Weekly Political Register.[7] In a critique of the English press, which had mistakenly reported Napoleon’s defeat, Cobbett recounted that he had once used a red herring to deflect hounds in pursuit of a hare, adding “It was a mere transitory effect of the political red-herring; for, on the Saturday, the scent became as cold as a stone.”[7] As British etymologist Michael Quinion says, “This story, and [Cobbett's] extended repetition of it in 1833, was enough to get the figurative sense of red herring into the minds of his readers, unfortunately also with the false idea that it came from some real practice of huntsmen.”[7]
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Now with reference to the Indian-OZ tussle-point, and using the above explanations from WIKIPAEDIA, we realise that there are not one RED HERRING but several…. Let me list them.
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The person who first called the Australians as Racist and who was quoted and projected by the Indian and Australian Media turned out to be neither an Indian, nor a Student and neither the formation had any validity as the voice of the Indian community. As exposed later, his comments were clearly without basis and even he tried to distance himself from them. However, the damage was done big time and everyone believed the media hype following the claim without waiting for facts to emerge. All instances of attacks by anyone including when the offender was a migrant of similar colour, fake claim of attacks for insurance or simple mugging and even deaths of Indians by Indians were seen as acts of Racism. Australia was branded as Racist and there were even suggestions that India should move for a sanction by the Commonwealth. The first and the original Red Herring…
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The Victorian Police Chief gave statistics on crime on Indians soon thereafter. Later it turned out that the crime stats are not kept on nationality but on the basis of appearance and what he described as Indians, actually included several nationalities. Further, since the crime data for other “appearances” was kept under clearly described categories such as Caucasians or Asians, Media assumed that attacks or crimes has only been against Indian nationals. This is second Red Herring…
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The Indian Government displayed significant patience and maturity. However, the External Affairs Minister, Mr Krishna, speaking at a function organised by an American body, made a statement that indicated, “Indians were being singled out in Australia”. This led to a number of serious commentators in Indian media to also believe that the killings of Indians in Australia over the last many years has been largely targeted and targeted by Australians. As data stood before us, this turned out to be totally unfounded. Of the last 15-16 deaths of Indians in Australia in last two years, only 1-2 is still under investigation. Of all the other deaths, it is now found that clearly in about 10 cases, it is people of Indian Origin themselves who have killed the other Indian. The remaining few cases of last two years has been deaths due to suicide or accident or by drowning. However, when the senior minister made the comment, many took it at face value.  Indian students and Parents continue to believe that INDIANS ARE INDEED BEING SINGLED OUT. This was third Red Herring…
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Without waiting for investigations to complete in the Ranjodh killing, MOS Preneet Kaur, received the body as it arrived in India and then laid a wreath from the Government giving it a “martyr” status. She also made a comment at the occasion indicating that a second advisory had been issued asking students not to go to Australia. The reality was very different but only surfaced after the Media had blown up the issue. Indians killed Ranjodh and he was possibly someone who had entered Australia illegally using a contract wedding and his legal widow stays on even right now in Australia and did not participate in the funeral. The “second travel advisory” was also incorrect awareness of the MOS and the Ministry immediately posted a correction on its website indicating that there is no second advisory and Indian students have not been asked to avoid travelling to Australia. The fourth Red Herring…
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Australian Government remained fractured between the actions in the state of Victoria and the comments being made in Canberra.  There appeared a push primarily to show to all that the acts were not racist and there was little that appeared to be done to act immediately to curtail the street violence in the city of Melbourne. Steps were taken but very late and very slow. The Press quotes provided by the functionaries in Victoria remained badly worded and focussed more on defensiveness and justifications. Clearly the focus of the Australian Government was now distracted and revolved around the sting of the word “racism”. Damage continued as crime continued. Indians continued to believe Australia to be in denial. Red Herring No. 5.
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Focus shifts to QUALITY of INDIAN STUDENTS. Hence scapegoats were found: Private Colleges and their agents. Rapid audits were announced and visas were immediately tightened. This led to closure after closure of colleges. These colleges should not have been in existence in the first place itself but that happened because of low compliance level of the State Government. However, now the tightening and the closures led to different problems for students who were in Australia legally and on valid visas. The Aussie Education brand was affected in the process.  The reality is that the ones to be affected at the end were the Universities and the quality providers and their quality agents who for no fault of theirs were being termed as “bad quality”. Journalists who were not education journalists were quoting in parts totally out of context and even the fall in visa numbers due to the severe visa tightening was projected as a drop in interest of Indian students due to “racism in Australia”. This in turn had a spiralling effect and the market finally lost interest in Australia even in reality. This is the Red Herring No. 6.
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Australia’s USP to International students has been the pathway to work/settlement. There is nothing fishy about this at all and world over all education destinations do offer this pathway using one terminology or another. However, a direct result of noise was the new-belief of so-called experts that this umbilical cord needs severing. Many students who can actually be able to contribute so well in Australia will soon find it difficult to stay on. The intention of ensuring that only those who can get a job stay on or even simply continuing with the reforms that had taken place in the system over the last two years could, easily have enforced that those who are willing to apply their education to workplace in the same line of occupation are granted residency. There was no need to replace the system totally and only fine-tuning would have served the purpose. Australia needs Immigration and potential OZ educated migrants are indeed best fit. More will now be affected and OZ is the loser at the end. Red Herring No. 7.
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In the election year, Australian Opposition is trying to use this issue to attack the Labour Government. Labour Government blames the Liberals stating that it is the result of the policies of the Howard regime. The reality is that the problem was not with legislation then or now but only in compliance of the legislation, then and now. ESOS even in current format is a solid document but hardly enforced. There is no guarantee that it will be enforced after the changes Compliance did not get so much of attention and only the blame-game continued. Who wins, will be known later this year but who is definite to lose is already known. Indian students and OZ-Indian free trade. Australian quality education providers and Australia. POLITICS is the Red Herring No. 8.
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Last eight months has proven that audience has indeed been diverted from the truth due to the RED HERRINGS…
Mar 8 2010

OZZIE INDIANS: STOP, PAUSE, THINK AND REFLECT

On 5th March 2010 Australian Prime Minister’s reaction on the murder of the toddler of Indian origin was immediate and sincere.
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“The death of any little child causes everyone in this country to stop, pause, think, reflect. If this is a case of murder, there is nothing worse than the brutal murder of a little child. The authorities are investigating it and we have every confidence the authorities will get to the bottom of it,” he said. (Link)
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With coverage of the tod’s death, even Indian media stuck to the basics and relied to on the feeds by the PTI. Thank God. (Must add that only one TV channel (no prizes for guessing) still attempted a little twist referring to the Aussie reaction as “Nervous” in actual quotes). However, overall, media in Australia and India reported in sync with the facts. The role of the Indian Government and of the Consul General Nayar remained commendable. Another plus was the focus on FIAV and not FISA.  Spokesman/founder/secretary/owner of FISA only showed up on one TV channel (no prizes again). City Counselor of the locality where the incident occurred is Tim Singh Lawrence, of an Indian origin, whom I have interacted with in my last visit and have also commented in an earlier blog, was quoted extensively.
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Now, as I pen this blog, news is breaking in that charges have been laid by the police and it appears that it was indeed an “insider job” that look the little one’s life. No racial or any other dimension to the story. Like almost all other Indian deaths in OZ over last two years, this one too is a case of an Indian taking an Indian’s life while we all were tending to suspect a white hand. In an earlier blog titled INDIANS ARE INDEED BEING SINGLED OUT, I had detailed my finding that of the last 15 or so Indian deaths in Australia, surprising to many, an overwhelming majority of deaths had been committed by Indians themselves. If we add to this the fact that Jasbir is not the only exceptional case of an Indian shouting “racism” over a fake attack in hope for insurance claims, I feel really ashamed today for the act of some holding a similar passport as mine. In this case, just click this link to get the full news as I just donot feel like even detailing it. An Indian student on a fake passport …. and another Indian murdered by an Indian.
"Indian" accused and his wife

"Indian" accused and his wife

Yes, ashamed I am and am sure many other Indians origin residents in Australia also share this emotion. We ran to the media each time prompted by one fake “student” leader with garbled history and statistics. The media in turn hyped it up testing the relationship between the two friendly countries. Ashamed I am, because of the conduct of the new Indian entrants into Australia, who in the garb of a student is actually mostly an illegal migrant, often working full time in risky jobs when they should actually be studying? Ashamed I am, that the Indian leadership in OZ is divided and missing even right now. Melbourne is only slightly better while Sydney Indians have recently been fighting over organizing of festivals and have still locked themselves into groups based on their castes and regions in India. Some are alleged to be making money from sponsorship commissions and contracts.
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I am not in anyway undermining the importance of a need for better law and order and check on street crimes in large cities at all. Cities around the world need better security and Melbourne is no exception.
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This blog is just trying to break the stereotyping that has developed around Australians and Indians.
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The conduct of recent Indians also risks other Indians. Visas have become tighter for genuine students. India continues at risk assessment level 4 along with only a few other countries such as Nigeria, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The entire system of AL is faulty and disadvantages genuine students due to acts of frauds. Majority of Indian migrants into Australia over the last 15 years have been largely professionals including Doctors, Accountants, IT professionals and Engineers and they are also feeling the branding of Indians due to the risqué behaviour of the recent Indians. Generalisations don’t help anyone and it is time for Australia to reconsider the full system of setting norms based on Assessment Levels especially for a huge country like India with non-uniformity with intentions, aspirations and track record.
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When will a real Indian leadership emerge in Australia that helps the rebuilding process?
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Indians in Australia too need to
stop, pause, think and reflect.
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That brings me to the part 2 of this blog where I share the crusade of two Ozzie Indians. These caught my attention and will help break the stereotype.
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MY NAME IS KHAN SINGH … AND I AM NOT A TERRORIST THUG.
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The movie MNIK has given a strong message that not all Muslims are terrorists and I innovate the message to MNIS indicating that not all Indians are Thugs.
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By the way, before I forget, did you know that an Ozzie Indian made her bollywood debut in MNIK. Pallavi Sharda, (daughter of a friend, Dr Hema Sharda, from University of Western Australia and a resident of Melbourne, Victoria) is a student of law at University of Melbourne. In MNIK she is the beautiful muslim girl who travels in the bus with SRK and offers him food. Pallavi has a website www.pallavisharda.com and has just completed another movie DUS TOLA with Manoj Bajpai. My sincere best wishes to this beautiful Ozzie Indian. She has a long way to go and has only just begun. Pallavi, be careful in Mumbai as it is not Melbourne. Its far unsafer.
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NOW, getting back to the two examples that shout out that NOT ALL SINGHS ARE THUGS. (I could have added my own example but then… ladies first!)
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NDTV has recently awarded Aradhana Gupta as Extraordinary Indian of the Year, for her crusade against injustice to her friend Ruchika Girothra;
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Aradhna, who lives in Sydney with her husband and children, has been teaching Indian culture.
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Quoting DNA newspaper:
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She said Rathore’s conviction gave her a renewed feeling of empowerment inspiring her to launch a new battle for hundreds of such Ruchikas in the society who must be waiting desperately for someone to rescue them.
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“What better occasion than Valentine’s Day to commence my next battle,” she said, launching the site at her home in Panchkula. She said she would rededicate herself to a social campaign against child abuse. The website is a platform where people from all walks of society can come together to create awareness, educate and eventually help prevent child abuse.
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Every Indian is proud of the campaign that Aradhna carried out over many years and this required her to travel repeatedly from Sydney to Chandigarh.
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While what Archana achieved is known to all of us thanks to the media and we have all toasted her for her act, there are many other Indians who have put in their best foot forward to bring peace in “charged up” Melbourne.
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A few months ago, I met with Divya Sharma, a PhD student then at RMIT Melbourne and a girl from Chandigarh. Let me quote from TOI Group’s Kolkata Mirror about the Diwali event that she was organizing last year to bring the communities together in harmony:
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“Australians that I meet are aware of Bollywood. They love the movies and dances and yes, they will be in Indian outfits,” says Divya, who admits that it will be “interesting” to teach the students how to dance Bollywood style.
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Multicultural events are seen as a way to help the Australian and newly arrived Indian students better understand each other’s community.
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“I wanted to send a message that everything was okay after the attacks on students, so the theme of this year’s celebrations will be Sabh kuch thik thak hai. We wanted people to know that things are fine here,” she says.
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Tribune, Punjab wrote:
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Academicians, educators and students, including Indian students, are planning to put behind the unfortunate trail of incidents, by organising a fiesta of music around Diwali to send the message that everything is fine here. And the person behind the concept and organisation of the show is a Chandigarh girl Divya Sharma..
“We plan to put up the show, including a fashion show with music from Bollywood movies, around Diwali in an our endeavor to bring to an end the unsavory chapter that sent wrong signals worldwide,” says Divya who is pursuing her doctorate at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).
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Everything is fine here, she says revealing that many locals join her classes in the Art of Living. She expects Sri Sri Ravi here in December to address a World Parliament of Religions as a key speaker,
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Divya, who is an Art of Living trainer, says that ever since she came here several years ago, she has never faced any problem. “Instead some of the locals have been going out of way to help international students in general and Indians in particular.”
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Khan’s (Aamir) ALL IS WELL translates to
Singh’s (Divya) SUB KUCH THIK THAK HAI
Ozzie Indians need to chant
AAL IZZ WELL OR SUB KUCH THIK THAK HAI
Certainly STOP, PAUSE, THINK AND REFLECT.

Mar 4 2010

Letters to the Editor… through my BLOG.

Many to correct incorrect perceptions have used Blogs. Recently, Mumbai Mirror (another RAGMAG of TOI group in a tabloid format) carried out breaking news that Ash (Yes, our own Aishwarya) has stomach tuberculosis. Ofcourse, the men of the household were aghast at this baseless (what a relief) news inserted by the newspaper to boost circulation. Abhishek used TWITTER to reach to his fans and pull up the newspaper while Big B used his blogs. The BLOG led to the newspaper putting out a correction to the news but true to the TIMES spirit, it did not apologize. On the other hand, Blogs have also been a source to boost circulations for newspapers. Shiv Sena’s newspaper SAAMNA carried a picture supposedly of KATRINA KAIF taking a ride on an auto-rickshaw in Mumbai.  It may have helped Sena reach some younger hearts but it turned out that the newspaper had simply lifted the photo from the blogsite of an Aussie living in Mumbai and the girl in the picture was not Kat at all.
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This is the power of the blogs.
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For some months now, I have been writing back to the editors of the newspapers that put out incorrect stories on the OZ issue. Some of these emailed letters have been acknowledged while some of the editors have simply either moved the emails to deleted or junk items. They have anyway served a useful purpose.
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EDUCATION TIMES of TIMES OF INDIA
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IN AN ARTICLE ‘Residency Down Under’, dated Monday, August 24, 2009, the journalist Rosanne Barrett, detailed on how the Indian students were being duped in Australia. She confused Private Colleges as Private Universities and put it out as a subheading. I being an alumnus of Bond University, Australia’s first Private University knew the value and quality of a Private University first hand AND how the journalist had tripped on the details.  I wrote to the Editor of the newspaper’s edition in Kolkata on 29th August 2009. He forwarded my complaint to Ms Nipa Vaidya, Editor of Education Times in Mumbai as the article originated from their Mumbai bureau.
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Ms Nipa Vaidya replied on 31st August and again on 1st September and while she did state that the journalist had done her research and that she stood by the report, she acknowledged the basic mistake that I had pointed out. Against my complaint, she provided her comments in Red as:
THERE IS NO RESEARCH FINDING or PUBLICATION of Mr Bob Birrell where he would or has accused any of the private UNIVERSITIES for duping Indian students. However, the writer of the article has put it as a subheading to the article giving clearly different message. Thank you for your explanation. We stand corrected.
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She also ends her reply by stating…
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I can understand your concern since you are such an integral part of the Indo-Australian educational fraternity. In our continuous effort to better ourselves and present facts to our readers, we would issue a corrigendum that clarifies the private colleges/ universities confusion. Needless to say, this is definitely not the last article we will be publishing about Australia. As and when we come across stories that would benefit our readers, they will be published in all editions of Education Times with relevant research and accurate information.
Ms Vaidya, though I did not see any corrigendum, I can confirm that thereafter have not seen any such incorrect report on this topic in Education Times. I also feel that several recent articles in Education Times have been of very good value and certainly balanced. Thanks for taking the complaint as a feedback and initiating accurateness. No corrigendum required anymore.
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BBC WORLD SERVICE
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BBC’s report on the issue was also lacking in substance and carried many inaccuracies.  I had done an earlier blog identifying the issues (find link to blog EVEN BBC GETS IT WRONG). I forwarded the link to the BBC and they immediately acknowledged and now after a few weeks have replied:
—— Forwarded Message
From: BBC World News
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:26:10 -0000
To: Ravi Lochan Singh
Subject: RE: Feedback from BBCWorldNews.com (India Business Report)
Dear Ravi
Thank you for emailing BBC World News and please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in responding.
Your comments have been noted and passed to our business editor who will take them up with the team that produce the India Business Report.
Kind regards,
BBC World News
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I am sure that this feedback has been taken constructively and this is what makes BBC an admired news source.
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OUTLOOK
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OUTLOOK magazine carried a cover story titled WHY AUSSIES HATE US and this really ruffled many because of the inadequate research done by the journalist and the fact that it highlighted small voices within Australia such as PM Kevin Rudd’s nephew and totally ignored the main players. It also seemed to be totally contradictory in parts. I was angry too especially because the news magazine, like BBC, is known for its good stories and because I considered it as a balanced publication. Maybe the fact that the editor of the magazine is popular with some of my friends due to his role as the editor of India’s first MEN’s magazine at the time when we were all growing up, has something to do with it. My anger got vented through my scathing blog (see link to DISSECTING INCORRECT OUTLOOK) and I did forward a copy to the email ID of the newsmagazine. It did not get acknowledged but that’s inconsequential now that after a week, OUTLOOK devoted a record number of pages to the LETTERS TO THE EDITOR on that particular cover story. Not just that, the letters continued and found place in the latter issues too. I want to quote from one such letter in the current edition that clearly summarises the general opinion. A reader from Mumbai (Subhashish Chattopadhyay) wrote:
The letters to the cover story WHY THE AUSSIES HATE US were much better than the original story itself (Feb 22). They reflected a wide range of views encompassing the Australians themselves, Indians in Australia and Indians, something your cover story sorely lacked. Unlike the ‘Marathi Manoos’ campaign of Mumbai, the Australian hate-attacks are not backed by any political outfit for the same of votebanks. The attacks are not really a specifically targeted outburst against Indians but more sporadic and a bad case of media hype and biased reporting.
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TIMES NOW
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While I congratulate Outlook for allowing feedback and criticism to flow back, I remain astounded by TIMES NOW which not just edits/deletes my feedbacks on their show from web-responses, My emails to its Editor, “The Great Mr Arnab Goswami” and my SMS to his mobile never got acknowledged.
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The channel, though in recent days, has become milder and has attempted at getting some panelists on NEWSHOUR debates such as Mr Sanjiv Srivastava (who stumped Suhel Seth by asking for the dictionary meaning of RACISM), Mr Naveen Chopra and Ms Padma Rao in addition to former Indian High Commissioner to Australia, Mr Parthasarthy, to balance out the untrained Suhel Seth and “gone old” Natwar Singh, it still gives factually weak explanations for the inaccurate and biased coverage.
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When it was apparent that Jasbir had burnt himself for insurance(see link), the channel focused more on Australians trying to change the story by stating that Jasbir had self-inflicted the injury. (Mr Goswami just forgot that this was not the first time that Indians had done this in Australia. See link to another such story.)
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When the investigations into the Ranjodh murder revealed that the killers were Indians, Times Now, unable to digest this twist in the story labeled the killers as “AUS” couple instead.  THIS WAS HEIGHT OF BIAS that run with the channel. When the Editorial Director of TIMES NOW was asked on why this aspect of the story was not covered, the reply was (see link);
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Times Now editorial director Hector Kenneth told The Weekend Australian there had been coverage of Singh’s murder, but the footage had been “purged” as part of regular updating.
Mr Kenneth said reports on Garg’s death were a “priority” item on the site following talks between Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and his Indian counterpart, S.M. Krishna. “Both the incidents reflected equally strongly in our coverage, and there is no bias in any way,” he said.
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What kind of blatant lie is this!!! See this link from TIMES NOW which clearly shows that the news-item is not purged and it displays the bias with the killers being headlined as AUS COUPLE.
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Other MEDIA VEHICLES:
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There are instances when I have pointed out formally or informally to various journalists on any inaccuracies in their reports and there are some who have also corrected their reports. I enjoy a good relationship with many because they understand that my intention is not to stop them from discharging their job but simply to assist in performing an “inaccuracy check” on the articles. Some have run past their draft of the stories and I thank them for this honour.
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NDTV and CNNIBN stand out as examples of TV journalism where an attempt has been made in the direction of balancing opinions. Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose and Karan Thapar have all done wonderful debates/interviews that have not had the stink of bias on them. INDIAN EXPRESS, HINDU and TELEGRAPH stand out amongst the newspapers for the reports that have appeared.
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Now, we enter a phase when the Indian Media has matured overall and leaving aside sensationalists, there are many worth engaging with.
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Let me end this blog in “hope” even with the TOI group.
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Times of India today reports Australian Foreign Minister’s visit. The reporting is factual and positive. (See link). However, I remain surprised that though this gets prominence in TOI editions around the country and even though the visit was to a college in Delhi barely a few kilometers away from the TOI office,  the reporting is by PRESS TRUST OF INDIA, India’s trusted wire service. (Was it my friend “ONE LAST QUESTION” doing the report, I wonder.) TOI didnot send its own correspondent????
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At the same time, Economic Times (also of the TOI group) puts out a report on the same event and by their political bureau. The article (see link) adds the Indian government’s perspective and ends the report with this:
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India has largely expressed satisfaction with the steps taken by Australia. Mr Krishna told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply said that over 100 Indians were attacked in Australia since May 2009. He added that some of the incidents could have racial overtones.
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“While we continue to receive reports of sporadic attacks on Indians in Australia, there does not appear to be any evidence to indicate a persistent rise,” Mr Krishna said. The minister also said that the government had not dissuaded Indian students from going to Australia, but advised certain basic precautions.
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So, do keep penning your COMMENTS to the blogs as they too reach the EDITORS along with my LETTERS.
Mar 3 2010

Indians are Indeed being SINGLED OUT in Australia…

Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Stephen Smith, addressed the students at DELHI UNIVERSITY’S prestigious St Stephens College this morning and emphasized that 1)Australia wants Indian students to keep coming to Australia and that 2)OZ has zero tolerance towards any attacks. (See link)

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A QUICK-FIX SOLUTION: A few steps that actually fixes both the issues are:
  • Change the AL for India for the University sector (573) without delay and it will help correct the skewed nature of the student visa policy and encourage quality Indian students. (EXTREMELY CRITICAL since without this, welcoming Indian students will remain mere lip-service).
  • Disqualify International students from “risky” jobs such as Taxi Driving or working beyond a certain time of the day. This will ensure that International students are not at “wrong place at the wrong time”. (NEW PROPOSAL and Indian government can also consider mentioning it in the advisory)
  • Part-time Taxi Driving by Indian students exposes them to rough hours leading to attacks by the drunk passengers and also exposes the Australians to possible death (see Link 1 and Link 2) at the hands of ill-trained and reckless students undertaking this part time work.
  • Push the Victorian Government especially the Police to increase patrolling of troublesome spots in the Melbourne suburb. The Western suburbs have seen higher incidents of mugging and theft and so this is certainly needed here. Even the visible presence of uniformed policeman is enough to discourage any “druggies/drunk/hippies” from robbing anyone, not just Indians. (NEED TO BE ENSURED)
  • Increased compliance on the part of onshore migration agents and some private vocational colleges will cut out the current nexus that has lowered the perception on the quality of Australian Education. (THIS IS BEING DONE)

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That’s it Sir. The above only can put an end to all the confusion and set the ball rolling again. No need for any other reviews and any other visits to India.

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India is certainly a country worth visiting but what is the point of so many visits in recent times over the same issue. What he stated this morning is exactly what Deputy PM Julia Gillard stated at LSR College during her visit in August-September 2009 (see link). AND the same message delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Both of them reiterated that Australia WELCOMES INDIAN STUDENTS (see link).
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Australia cannot WELCOME Indian students by merely stating the same. The current visa system disadvantages quality students to quality providers and hence is certainly UNWELCOMING. Without changing this and also the above advised measures, the visits of the senior Ministers will amount to nothing but wastage of breath, money and time on part of both the countries.

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Baring the blunder of one Indian channel and of one Australian.
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It is time that Australia completely bares the hypocrisy of Indian Media and a certain Australian of Indian Origin who keeps giving his GUPT-GYAN. Take them on by their horns. Next time, they ask the question: Why are INDIANS BEING SINGLED OUT? Reply by asking them to provide you with the list of the dead Indians over the last 5 years. This will answer all the questions and lay bare the ‘RACISM” claim. Repeatedly accusing OZ of Racist killings and calling all Australians as Racist is different from stating that in some of the attacks (not amounting to murder), the muggers may have made racist statements or even some attackers may be racist in belief. TIMES NOW is certainly guilty of brainwashing many in believing that Indians have been singled out and that killings have been targeted at Indians. A complete nonsense. Journalism requires that all inputs are verified.
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I, like many, have read statistics that since 2003, there have been 32 deaths of Indians in Australia. I, like many, have also heard one TV anchor and a few of his invited guests, discuss how Australia has been in denial and that innocent lives have been lost.
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This got me on to a search for the full list of Indian deaths since 2003 to try and find a pattern or to establish what has been often referred to as SINGLING OUT OF INDIANS. I have come to the conclusion that INDIANS ARE INDEED BEING SINGLED OUT and am hereby presenting my assessment.
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Digging the internet and prodding through publicly available records, helped me dig data for last 2 years. In last two years, I have come across several deaths of people of Indian-Origin and even though I did not manage to extract the full 32 names (since 2003), it is still sufficient to take me to a conclusion.
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ALL THE BELOW ARE HYPERLINKED TO ACTUAL NEWS REPORTS WITH DETAILS.
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My estimate is that there are possibly 15 (Fifteen) Indian deaths in total in last two years. Of these atleast 10 are clearly committed by people of Indian origin or appearance. The remaining will include those who may have died as a result of accident or drowning and also suicide. I DID NOT COME ACROSS EVEN ONE INDIAN KILLED BY A WHITE AUSTRALIAN IN THE LAST TWO YEARS.
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Hence going by the available information on the deaths of Indians in Australia, if at all Indians are being SINGLED OUT, it is by the Indians themselves.
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Prove me wrong!!!
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There is another issue of selective coverage of news items by Indian media. I want to share one recent Press Trust of India release which only got picked up by an online news site. The link is here and I quote:
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“Melbourne, Feb 24: More than 250 Indians have been accused of assaults in Victoria during 2008-09, with nearly 86 of them for rape and sex abuses, the latest figures from Australian police on violent crimes claim. “
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“86 Indian nationals or Australians born in India were processed by police for rape and sex assaults, 12 for aggravated burglary, 8 for abduction and two for murder, the latest report by ‘Herald Sun’ on the crime statistics kept by the police for 24 foreign-related groups said. “
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I will cover the “selective coverage” by Indian channels in another blog… Bye for now.
P.S.: As on 03.03.2010 there are also a few investigations “in progress” and this includes the case of “Nitin Garg” and we donot know the killers in these cases yet. Also most of the above are based on newspaper reports and in some cases, court proceedings are still ongoing and hence they may only be treated as “accused” till then.
Feb 23 2010

POLITICS OF "DESI BOYZ PHOREN DREAMZ"

CNN IBN ran a 30-minute documentary on 21st Feb 2010 by this name (find the link here) and it did make engaging viewing.  I guess the 20 minute (30 minus adverts) doesnot allow sufficient time to the correspondent to do justice as it merely touches upon various leads that have led to this huge urge on the part of DESI BOYZ to take one way tickets out of India.

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Till this program stated directly, I did not know that the killed Ranjodh Singh had gone to Australia through “Contract Wedding” with a girl older than him (a NO NO in Rural Punjab). The girl went to study at a polytechnic in Melbourne while he went to a farm miles away in the Griffith town as a labourer where a fellow Indian killed him.  The program also indicates that even after the death, the girl seems to be staying on in Melbourne and hence we can assume has abandoned the relationship further substantiating the summarisation that it was a case of “Illegal migration using contract wedding”.
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Now the question all Indians need ask is as to why our Minister of State Maharani Preneet Kaur treated him as a martyr when he was clearly an illegal migrant who had been killed by Indians and had even been abandoned by his “so called legally wedded” wife. Why did she take the honour of receiving the body and then even be at the village for the last rites and placing a wreath on behalf of the Government of India. See the link that details this. It was here, in her constituency, that she had made a callous statement that gave an impression that a second advisory had been issued by India asking students not to go to Australia. (I have already detailed the faux pas in an earlier blog).
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“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind”
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The CNN IBN program also included two education advisors. Nothing negative about them and one of them is my friend, Naresh Gulati, certainly a hardworking entrepreneur. Naresh does well in detailing the marriage of shonky education colleges with shonky agents with shonky students all working in tandem due to bad government policies. He is right. However, I guess, absolutely no one can escape the blame. Wittingly or unwittingly, the PHOREN DREAMZ of the DESI BOYZ requires all participants to shake hands at least in the land of five rivers.
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The office of the other agent displays on the door a feature of the agency being MONEYGRAM. Moneygram is like Western Union Money Transfer and is used by students working as Taxi Drivers or other such jobs to send money back to India. This is one aspect that has not been unravelled till now. My guesstimate is that of the Vocational students, there is less $$$ travelling out of India as it is coming back in… A simple mathematics would indicate that about 50% of all students from India in Australia are undertaking vocational courses at small time colleges that charge hardly any fees. These students are working as Taxi Drivers or in Night Time shifts and hence are raising money far in excess to what they are spending. Very Often. If a proper study is done, I am sure all the experts will have to end up lowering the estimate that Australia earns $15 Billion from International students.
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Nilanjana Basu, the correspondent who had won the Ramnath Goenka Award for her Journalism in 1996, should be complimented in including some balanced view points including that of Arpita Dutta, a student who was counselled by me in Kolkata a few years ago and who studied at the University of Queensland. Arpita and another featured couple from New Jersey bring about the fact that the jury is still out on the “racial” factor in the attacks.
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However, for the program to get a 5* rating, the following had to be indicated by the correspondent:
  1. Almost all the students that were interviewed or referred to belonged to Private Colleges and Vocational level doing courses such as hairdressing or cookery. Not to the Universities at all.
  2. There was reference to visas to Australia being easy and that being the reason for the students choosing Australia. The reality is that PR was easy for “such” students and often those commenting mixed the two types of visas. The correspondent should have indicated that the visas have now been tightened to such a level that it is not going to be easy for these students to enter Australia. Since September last year, the students to such courses are interviewed and often refused entry. Yes, you can check.
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Now my main grouse is with the title of the program. While the intentions are right it should have been called PUNJABI BOYZ PHOREN DREAMZ instead of DESI BOYZ because there are many across our DES who have other reasons for the PHOREN DREAMZ. Even in Punjab and most definitely in Chandigarh, there will be students who have totally different reasons to those identified. It is a tad unfair to feature Punjab and call it India even though Punjab is my favourite state for many reasons that I may keep to myself.

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Indian students have been going to PHOREN lands for decades and study “real” degrees and then seek legal avenues to work and migrate or return back to build India. There is nothing wrong with this.  Almost all leading politicians, industrialists, bureaucrats and even journalists have studied in PHOREN lands and have had reasons very different to what has been shown in the video. In today’s globalised world, education in other cultures is the only way forward.  This needs to be addressed and appreciated by all.
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I mentioned “almost all Politicians” believing in overseas education since there was one Prime Minister who did not believe in “overseas education” for Indians.  My friend, Mr Paul Chellakumar, who  apart from being one of the more experienced student counsellors is also the President of AAAOE (Association of Accredited Advisors on Overseas Education)(www.aaaoe.org) and is currently quite active in putting some sense in the UK system, in one of his publication printed the following letter that he had received from Mr Morarji Desai in 1986. The late prime minister is quite clear in his few words…

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I have a different take on his belief that Indian students should not go overseas for studies.

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He had assumed power in 1977, post “emergency” from Mrs Indira Gandhi who had been educated overseas. Her father and India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru, had also had the same privilege. Interestingly both had even undertaken their schooling overseas. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had chosen to educate her sons at THE DOON SCHOOL before sending Rajiv Gandhi overseas. This is when Rajiv Gandhi met Sonia Gandhi. (Interestingly, the grandson, Rahul Gandhi too followed his father by going to Doon and then too studied overseas. Rajiv did go on to become a dynamic PM and I am waiting for Rahul now.)
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Morarji Desai’s Prime Ministership was short and he was replaced by Chowdhury Charan Singh who had also chosen to educate his son and the current Harit Leader Ch Ajit Singh overseas (Ajit Singh’s son too studied overseas.)
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Hence, in such a circumstance and seven years after his (brief) tenure as India’s first non-Congress Prime Minister, the comments made in 1986 at the age of 90, does sounds quite banal and like a “particular therapy” that Morarjibhai prescribed, completely impractical.
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“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind”

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Indian POLITICS in this too. My other blog of this day already details the OZ side of POLITICS over the DESI students.

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DESI BOYZ and GIRLZ will continue to nurture PHOREN DREAMZ for varied reasons that needn’t necessarily be SURREPTITIOUS. It is not just to USA, UK, Australia or Canada but also to New Zealand and more recently even to Singapore and Dubai.
Feb 23 2010

Now when FISA attacks my initiative… I detail what I‘d rather avoid.

This blog results due to claims made by FISA spokesperson in Herald Sun about a visit that I had organised for a group of Indian journalists on behalf of the Victorian Universities. Hence need to provide the requisite clarifications.

On 5th February, in my blog I had attempted at exposing the incorrect assessment of many that FISA Inc was a representative voice of the Indian Community in Australia. I had also detailed the missing links that indicated that there was something else that was the agenda in the whole game and summarised that the “Gupta” was not a “Gautam”. (see the linked blog).
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On 21st February, one of the more respected newspapers, THE AGE, carried a detailed exposure of this “SECRETive BUDDHA”. Am not providing any quotes here since I do want all of you to click on this link and see the similarities of the exposure through my blog with the exposure by THE AGE. I express my sincerest appreciation to the correspondent. Hopefully more media setups will question Gupta’s integrity now and will question the formation of the four lettered FISA.
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Not all will. Gupta has found support in the Opposition Party and an audience with newspapers like Herald Sun. Both are no surprises.  Taking help from Wikipedia, I detail the rise of GUPTA rule in India and the advice that Chanakya, the mentor to Chandragupta and certainly the Guru to all Politicians would give:
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Chānakya (Sanskrit: चाणक्य Cāṇakya) (c. 350–283 BCE) was an adviser and prime minister to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta (c. 340-293 BCE), and was the chief architect of his rise to power.
The phrase the enemy of my enemy is my friend is a proverb that advances the concept that someone who is the enemy of your enemy is therefore your friend. It further means that because two parties have a common enemy, one can use the other to advance their goals.
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However, In the case of the Gupta that some Indians in OZ are likening to Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, while an attempt is being made to use the enemy of his enemy, there is going to be big gaps. The Opposition Party will soon realise that the Indian Community is not buying the theory put forward by GG who likens himself as Mandela and Gandhi to great amusement of many. This GG also tends to believe that all those who lived prior to 1947 in India were SLAVES… Such a poor understanding of Indian history will not find support with any sensible intellectuals who understand what SLAVERY is. The Opposition leaders who are hoping for the migrant votes (interestingly, the current Federal Government too had banked on Migrant votes a few years ago when it had attacked the policies of the Howard Government.) will soon realise that the temporary residents who seem to have been used by GG donot have a vote and the settled Indians are not in support of the theories prescribed even though all want Victorian Police to act against street crime.
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It’s indeed POLITICS and in the election year, truth will remain quite sullied.
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Herald Sun carries an article where the Opposition Leader has attacked the OZ Government for undertaking PR activities from budgets kept for PR and bringing in journalists to Australia. See link.
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I will let the Australian Tax Payers decide (I am one too) if OZ needed to bring “real” journalists to Australia and let them write from their actual experience considering that most of the media coverage in India was a result of second hand journalism and from feeders. Real Journalists do indeed make some very uncomfortable. I was involved in one such visit that has been quoted in the article and hence do need to put some substance to paper. The Journalists have always had the freedom to write what they want. This is referred to as “journalistic freedom”. I would not liken it to “junket journalism” which is the forte of corporate bodies. Almost all journalists got to visit sensitive areas and on their own terms. They got to meet “attacked” students and ask whatever questions that they may have had to anyone and were never asked to push one-sided stories. They visited Gurudwaras and met with students and Indians on random in addition to the respected Master Darshan Singh and the team and articulate Counsellor from the Indian Sikh Community Harvin Dhillon. They interacted with Indian officials at the Consulates and the High Commission. They walked into University campuses and asked students on random.
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This is why I have a clear problem with the following comments made by Mr GG on 23rd February 2010:
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Another delegation of Indian reporters, whose trip was financed by universities, was treated to a cricket session at Monash University with former Test skipper Graham Yallop.
“These (IMV visits) are just marketing junkets paid for by the taxpayer,” said Federation of Indian Students of Australia secretary Gautam Gupta.
The comfort and entertainment being lavished on the Indian journalists, and the tightly scripted itinerary, was designed to gloss over the attacks on Indian students that have seen Indian media outlets paint Melbourne as racist and sparked a diplomatic crisis.
Mr Gupta said only the top universities were on the list to be visited by the Indian reporters and, apart from seeing railway stations at St Albans and Footscray, the journalists were kept from areas and people that would negatively affect their coverage.
“They are never taken to the colleges which collapse and they are never taken to the victims of assault,” he said.
Mr Gupta said the reporters were hosted at five-star hotels and given soft diplomacy such as tours of the MCG and tickets to live shows.
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As a key organiser of this quoted visit, I confirm, that the visit was indeed sponsored by the Universities who needed to differentiate between the quality of some private colleges and the Universities considering that the media in India had forgotten that Australia did indeed have some very fine Universities that secure good ratings worldwide.  The visitors still were taken to TAFE providers such as NMIT (where another counsellor from Indian community Mr Tim Singh provided his candid views about the attacks) and they visited private vocational colleges such as Academia and Pivot Point to see the Hairdressing and Cookery students. If Monash has excellent training facilities for sport people and the journalists got an exposure to the nets there, is it wrong. Indians are known for their love for Cricket and so will visit Cricket nets and not Baseball fields…
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The journalists (and I) took an unstructured trainride on the western line in Melbourne at 10 pm and on Saturday and went right past Footscray upto Sunshine which was termed as notorious. We did get out of the station and went for a walk around the area and actually missed our return train. Journalists were able to talk to Pizza delivery boys and also encounter the drunken behaviour of teenagers at that time. Therefore, doesn’t Gautam Gupta, once again edging on sensationalism in tandem with what he has always done, make the accusation.
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Journalists did tour MCG, which all first time visitors to Melbourne do and there is nothing news-worthy here to criticise about. The visit to MCG highlighted the role Cricket Australia is playing in building bridges between the communities through their various schemes over the years.
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The journalists actually also met with an attack victim too who had been highlighted in Indian press and got him some assistance through our gracious Consulate General, Ms Anita Nayar.
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Hence, where has this man got his facts and how can he keep going to the “some” media and selling the rot to them, again and again? Why does the media not crosscheck his comments to discover the man as a liar or as Gandhi.
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I have met with Gautam a few times and have had courteous communications too. I had expectations from him and hence had avoided talking so openly about his antics till early Feb simply in hope that he will correct himself sooner than later. Had advised him too. Gautam, you have let me down as you have let down many other Indians. While Pauline Hanson’s migration to UK is Australian Gain Britain’s loss, Gautam Gupta’s taking up of Aussie citizenship by giving up Indian nationality is India’s gain Australian loss.
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Gautam is indeed very uncomfortable with the questions that real journalists ask and would prefer the sanctuary that existed when the Indian journalists just relied on the feeds that he would provide.  He exploited the fact that Indian Media Organisations did not really have a presence or bureau in Australia.
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I witnessed one such session in August last year when “real” journalists pushed him off his comfort zone through questions like:
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  1. If you believe Australia is racist, why have you taken up its residency and have now even given up Indian nationality to become an Aussie citizen?
  2. You are not a student and so how can you run a Federation of Students?
  3. We met students across campuses and on random and most had not heard of FISA till a few months ago. How can you claim that FISA is the voice of all Indian students?
  4. How do you take membership of FISA? Simply subscribing to the website and not filling membership forms or paying subscription cannot make a student your member? Can you provide a list of your members?
  5. Indian Community leaders and also Indian associations feel that what you claim as “racism” is gross generalisation. Why do you not have support of Indian community?
  6. None of the committee members seem to be student and even the President was graduating soon. How can non-students lead an association of Students?
  7. Who provides money to FISA? How does it survive and your motive?
  8. Now you say that all Australians are NOT racists and that all attacks were not racist, but this is not what you said earlier?
  9. We met an attack victim who felt that he wants to stay away from FISA due to FISA’s role in politicising it. Why?
  10. You detail a problem or issue; do you have any solutions or suggestions?
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This was at a session at Hotel Windsor and Mr Gautam Gupta who had changed from Advisor to Spokesman for FISA almost during the meeting, was accompanied by Mr Amit Menghani, as President of FISA. The entire discussion should be on an audio recorder of one of the experienced journalist (and possibly I too will have a copy somewhere) who post the session told me that he read through this man quite clearly and sees him of the same mould as several Indian small time politicians who use half-facts to build up the full-story. None of journalists bothered to give him any real importance and one even seeked the permission from editor to do an exposure on FISA. (Not needed now that The Age has done the job.) Interestingly, the President of FISA turned out to be a bouncer of a nightclub who kept mum throughout evoking pity for the youngster who was clearly “much used” by the seasoned Gautam. One of the hilarious comments made by Gautam was that FISA is like Amnesty and Red Cross. Does he even know how structured these organisations are?
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No further comments. I wish I were a lawyer who could take this exposure further to its logical conclusion.
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Didn’t Venu advise me in an earlier blog to go for the full deal! Hope I did not let you down. No mini-skirts this time.
Feb 20 2010

America is America and Australia is Australia… Folly of the first, ignored; while of the other, hyped up.

“Wo Katal Bhi Karte Hai To Charcha Nahi Hoti
Ham Aah! Bhi Bharte Hai To Ho Jate Hai Badnaam”
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We can imagine several well meaning Aussies almost reciting this couplet.
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Victorian Police Chief is known only from his statements in the media. Simon has repeatedly been shooting her mouth off and at worst times. The classic one to my mind is the statement by him in mid June 2009 when he detailed the crime statistics for Victoria and despite being fully aware of the scale of media hype gave out stats that grouped all those with “Indian appearance” as “Indians” leading to a belief till date that there were about 1500 cases of reported crime against Indians in Victoria in a year.
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“Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”
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This quote from someone (possibly Ozzie considering the analogy) may bring a smile here but is completely applicable to the game of statistics being thrown around.
I have stopped believing in statistics completely as it is these statistics that got India’s assessment level as Level 4 for the University sector even though every University knows that it was the packaging of diploma students into degree that fooled the system. All to the disadvantage of the genuine students. The Australian Government still wants to stick to keep referring to the same statistics is what baffles me even more. Afterall, a British politician once said:
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“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
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Now going back to Simon Overland…
In recent weeks his appearance was on the Indian TV with his advise to Indian students to dress down and look “poor” to avoid attacks. On the face of it and keeping the background in mind, it appeared to be such an insensitive statement. We cut-pasted the word POOR and headlined it and hence in the process totally lost out on the entire essence of the statement. Did he really say anything wrong? Let me quote his statement to enable me to drive the point here (see link):

Don’t display your iPods, don’t display your valuable watch, don’t display your valuable jewellery. Try to look as poor as you can,” Overland was quoted as saying by The Age.

The Victorian police chief commissioner said students could take some steps to protect themselves. “If you can live somewhere safer, live somewhere safer,” he said. “If you can avoid public transport into high-risk areas late at night, avoid it.”

Victorian Premier John Brumby defended his top cop, saying the advice to the overseas students to avoid crime, as per Overland, was a comment about high crime areas. “He may have been making the point that in some areas, there are higher crime rates than in others,” the Premier was quoted as saying by AAP.

Brumby said he and the police chief condemned in the strongest possible terms “acts of violence, and particularly any violence which is racially motivated”.
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What is so wrong with this statement that the self imposed leader of the Indian student community goes to Indian media and gets quoted prominently:
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“What is he (Overland) saying? Indians don’t have the right to be rich? And if they look rich, do they may be have to get bashed? On one hand, everyone should look poor. On the other, don’t live in poor areas (where crime rate is high). I don’t understand.”
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Hold on guys, you are just attempting at simply underscoring the vital advise that Simon is giving. He is a cop and not an English teacher. He has used wrong words, possibly, but the point that he is making is of critical importance and is made regularly by police to students at campuses of Universities around the world.
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Yes… it is not just the Victorian Police in Australia that issues such advisories. To elaborate my point check out this YOUTUBE link. This video is from USA and gives exactly the same advice.
I am also now quoting from one of the many such advisories in USA available on the internet and it seems to be the similar message albeit using different words…
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In addition to being traumatic, a mugging can result in the loss of possessions with emotional value as well as credit cards, cell phones, and other expensive items. Numerous police departments offer recommendations on what to do during a mugging to avoid physical harm and maximize the potential of retrieving your lost goods. The most important thing to do during a mugging is to stay calm and keep your head. Being able to think logically can prevent you from getting into a worse situation.
Being able to avoid mugging altogether is the first step. Because muggings tend to follow certain patterns, people can avoid victimhood by traveling smart. Try to avoid being alone on the street or on public transit between 8:00 PM and 2:00 AM. Travel with a group after dark, and stick to well lighted areas where there are other people around. Make sure that your valuables are hidden and secured, as well. Keep things like cell phones, cameras, and personal music players out of sight and out of temptation.
It is very important to be aware of your surroundings, and be especially alert when you reach cross streets or areas with poor lighting. If you feel you are particularly at risk for assault or mugging, you may want to consider taking a self defense class. Numerous urban areas have self defense courses at minimal cost. You can learn basic ways to defend yourself, as well as the best way to carry yourself on the street to project a confident, secure image.
If you are caught in a mugging despite your precautions, the safest thing to do is to comply with the mugger’s requests. A mugging can turn ugly, especially if the mugger has a knife or gun. If asked to empty your bag or pockets, obey calmly. Remember: you can stop payment on credit cards and file a stolen phone report with your cellular phone provider, so it is better to simply let go of these items. Respond neutrally to any questions the mugger asks, and be non-confrontational. Try to end your interaction as quickly as possible and get somewhere safe.
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(Can you guys imagine what would have happened if the same advise was issued in Australia. My favourite TV anchor, who is known for his well researched coverage of the OZ issue, would utilise the Newshour to engage a learned gentleman from Kolkata through a satellite linkup on the breaking exclusive news: “Australia asks students to learn Karate and give in to attackers”.)
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My advise to the Premier of Victoria is to ensure that all police chiefs achieve a 7.0 band score in the IELTS before they can make statements. (I am willing to sponsor even the training for this to Simon Overland, as he will most definitely need it.)
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Australia can also hope that one day an OZ educated Indian becomes a Cabinet Minister in India. A news item caught my attention (regarding a statement on OZ attacks made by Mr S M Krishna, India’s Foreign Minister) and I quote (see link)…
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Krishna said New Delhi had received no such complaints from the US, where nearly 100,000 Indian students are studying.
Krishna was speaking on the sidelines of a function to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the US-India Education Foundation that awards the Fulbright scholarships.
Krishna, a Fulbright scholar himself and was the chief guest at the function.
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Possibly he was being generous to his hosts and the sponsors of his scholarship and hence had possibly imagined that students in USA are not mugged or attacked late at night.
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It is a fact hence that what Australia needs apart from getting the Police Spokespeople possessing good communication skills, is to offer an Aussie equivalent of the Fulbright to a potential future cabinet minister. The only Indian politician with an Ozzie education that comes to my mind with political parentage and political acumen to one day become a Cabinet Minister is Netaji Mulayam’s son Akhilesh. Being doubtful of his academic capabilities, Australia can instead focus on giving me the scholarship instead!!!
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I am often told by a journalist friend to keep my blogs short to sustain interest. A quote from which he wants me to take inspiration from is…
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“A good speech, they say, should be like a mini-skirt, short enough to be interesting, and long enough to cover the essentials.”
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I am learning slowly… Keep advising.
Feb 16 2010

The “IRRESPONSIBLE” must take blame for the death of these “OZ-BOUND” students.

Many Indian parents believed the over-hyped media coverage on the Australian attacks and persuaded young students bound for “elite and safe” Universities to drop their plans over the last nine months. The fact is that some of these students were indeed NOT the “workers” going as “students” to be exposed to risky occupations such as “taxi driving” and were actually choosing serious academic courses at “secure” campuses of “elite” Universities.
I am doing this blog as an alumnus of once such University: Bond University on the Gold Coast, which clearly lives up to its reputation as a “Rolls Royce” amongst institutions. A beautiful custom built campus with students mostly staying on campus and with 24×7 security.
The tragedies that I will refer to are pertaining to students considering Bond as their study destination and will be backed by links giving the details.
Tragedy 1: Ashar Mendon
India’s most reliable TV channel, NDTV, reported on July 8, 2009 (see link):
Ashar Mendon was all set to study in Australia.
But now, the 18-year-old’s dream has died with him.
Ashar, the son of a garment exporter committed suicide by hanging himself in their flat in Colaba on Monday.
The reason: his mother scared by the racial attacks on Indians in Australia forbade him to go.
Just days ago, Ashar had got admission at the Bond University in New South Wales for an undergraduate Information Technology course.
The report does get it wrong on the location of Bond University but it is a fact that he had applied to Bond University indeed (Student ID 13089319 and for Sept 09 intake). He had also been issued an offer of admission.
Tragedy 2: Anindee Dhar (along with her brother and other friends)
Anand Bazar Patrika, on 15th Feb, reported that Anindee Dhar, a student at Pune, who died in the blast, was actually intending to study in Australia but once the media reported the attacks, the family changed the plans and she went to Pune. Due to the fact that she was in Pune, her brother who lives in Mumbai and her friend from Mumbai would travel over to Pune to meet her. They all died in the attack. What an irony indeed that in trying to escape the “reported” violence in Australia and met with death in India itself.
My gut feel is that she would have been safe and sound at the institution that she was intending to study in Australia. What a co-incidence indeed once again, the institution that she was being counseled for was Bond University, my alma mater and the course being Bachelors in Communication.
I want to share and put on record the article that has appeared in INDIA TODAY GROUP’S Mail Today newspaper, this day (see link):

KOLKATA GIRL HAD PICKED ‘ SAFER’ PUNE
HAD SHE pursued her dream of studying in Australia, 19- year- old Anindee Dhar may have been alive today.
Anindee and her brother, 24- year- old Ankik, were killed when a bomb ripped through German Bakery in Pune on Saturday.
IIT Kharagpur alumnus Ankik had come from Mumbai to celebrate his promotion at JP Morgan with his sister. The siblings were joined by friend Shilpa Goenka ( 23), who was also from Kolkata and who too was killed in the blast.
The three, along with two other friends, P. Sundari ( 23) and Binita Gadani( 22) — who were also killed in the blast — were munching on strawberry rolls when the blast snuffed out their lives.
Early last year, Anindee had approached the Salt Lake branch of Global Reach with her mother for counselling on which Australian university to apply to.
Sugata Das, the manager of counselling at the branch, remembered Anindee as a “ very lively girl”, who came in saying that she wanted to do her bachelor’s in arts Down Under.
A shocked Das said, “ She was such a good communicator that I advised her to apply for a bachelor’s in communication at Bond University, Gold Coast in Queensland, which would help her land a good job.”
Anindee’s mother, Das remembered, was very concerned about her daughter’s safety. “ I reassured her that Bond is one of the safest campuses in Australia with on- campus accommodation,” Das added.
The Dhar family was also making enquiries about sending their younger Aishik, to study in Australia once he finished school.
Anindee’s parents were in touch with Global Reach till May on Anindee’s education prospects in Australia. That’s when reports of attacks on Indian students Down Under hit the headlines.
“ These reports scared them, and they decided that they didn’t want to send Anindee to study in Australia,” Das said.
Anindee’s mother is now in a state of deep shock.
Global Reach MD Ravi Lochan Singh said the irony is that “ no student of Bond University drives taxis”, referring to the recent reports of attacks on Indian taxi drivers in Australia.
It was these attacks that had led to widespread fears of racist violence targeted against Indian students there.
Anindee, who was a photography and trekking enthusiast and a voracious reader, applied to Fergusson college in Pune, instead.
She excelled there as a student of English literature, topping her college’s internal exam.
Just a day before she died, Anindee had discussed threadbare the interpretation of death while reading Robert Frost’s poem, Stopping By Woods on A Snowy Evening in class.
It was the last poem she was destined to speak about in class.
As the one who established the Indian chapter of Bond University Alumni, I find it so unbearable to read about the two tragedies. Both these students would have done really well to proceed on to Australia for their UG degrees. Bond is the University that is chosen by several protective parents including the Sultan of Brunei for their children and there is no doubt that many other Universities would offer similar safe and secure study environment. Almost all attacks that have been reported have happened to those who have actually travelled to Australia on “student visas” though with clear intention to be “workers”. Almost all attacks have taken place in risky circumstances. And almost all the attacks have had little to do with University students. Further the recent deaths were not of students at all (Both Nitin Garg and Ranjodh were not students) and while Nitin’s killers are being hunted, Ranjodh’s killers turn out to be Indian brethren. The Racism theory stands challenged also when Jasbir was found to have engaged in self-inflicted injury in hope of “insurance claim”. Indian High Commissioner has certainly raised the need for increased security in the state of Victoria especially in certain parts of Melbourne. Both the above mentioned students would have been miles away in Gold Coast, a city that lives on tourism from all over the world. This is not to say that students in Melbourne especially at the Universities are in anyway unsafe. The University students are overall safer in Australia as compared to all other destinations and this is confirmed through various international studies and surveys including one that has been released today. FOUR Aussie cities including Melbourne and Sydney continue to be listed amongst livable cities and in top 10 worldwide while Mumbai stands at 117th rank.
Violence is unacceptable in any society but at the same time the incorrect and hyped picture of violence in Australia makes certain over-enthusiastic TV anchors and commentators unwitting accomplices in these tragedies. What is written and what is broadcasted using the LIVE medium has deep impact on the parents of these students in ways that require us to be even more responsible and careful about what we utter.
May the soul rest in peace of these young children of our country… May there be no more deaths… Will the Indian Media take some lessons?