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.
.
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”.
.
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).
.
“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind”
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
However, for the program to get a 5* rating, the following had to be indicated by the correspondent:
- 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.
- 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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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…
.
I have a different take on his belief that Indian students should not go overseas for studies.
.
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.)
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.)
.
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.)
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.)
.
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.
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.
.
“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind”
.
Indian POLITICS in this too. My other blog of this day already details the OZ side of POLITICS over the DESI students.
.
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.
RLS's Blog 
Leave a comment