Australia Should Be Allowed to Play Cricket in Mumbai
Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray has made some controversial statements again. The self-appointed leader of the Hindus (specifically the Marathi’s) said that he will not allow Australia to play in Maharashtra. He wrote “Our boys are being stabbed, burnt and shot at in that country and still our cricketers have no qualms in playing with
them. Do they have any national pride?
He then wrote about Amitabh Bachchan declining an award offered by Queensland University and said that “I would have been happy if our cricketers too had shown similar self-respect in the matter. But cricket has become a game of money and self-respect and patriotism have taken a back-seat”. Aren’t we tired of hearing the same type of rhetoric again and again from Bal Thackeray?
It is difficult for any democratic country to completely shutdown racially motivated attacks on foreign citizens or on its own citizens. I trust the Australian officials when they say that they are doing their best to stop these attacks. I have not so far read a single article that shows evidence that Australian law enforcement or the politicians are either encouraging these attacks, covering them up or dragging their feet on this issue. These attacks have caused considerable international embarrassment to Australia. I am sure they want to put an end to it as quickly as they can.
The Indian government should do their best to make sure that the concerns of India and the affected families are clearly understood by the Australian government. But we should also be very careful and realize that the relationship between Australia and India is extremely important for both countries in the long term and should not be affected because of these incidents.
Australia like many Western countries has a long history of racism. Australian immigration policy for a long time intentionally prevented non-white immigration to Australia. This policy was well known as the “White Australia Policy”. This policy was abolished only in 1975.
In recent years Australian politicians like Pauline Hanson (United Australia Party) and John Howard (Former Prime Minister) have played to the sentiments of a small minority in Australia who want to completely stop or reduce immigration from non-White nations particularly from South Asia and Africa (during Howard’s term as Prime Minister he shut down immigration from Africa for a brief period of time and made it very difficult for non-English speaking people to immigrate to Australia by making the English test tougher and introducing a test on “Australian Values”).
I wrote the above statements only to provide some background information about Australian immigration policies. It goes without saying that it is the responsibility of the Australian government to protect people who live in Australia irrespective of their race or immigration status. But as Indians we should also take this opportunity and realize that discrimination is not an Australian problem alone. Indians are in no position to point fingers when it comes to discrimination. Caste system is one of the worst forms of discrimination that is still practiced in the world.
Bal Thackeray’s decision not to allow Australia to play Cricket in Maharashtra is unfortunate. Relationship between India and Australia go far back and goes even further when you consider that both these countries were former British colonies. If we prevent them from playing in Mumbai then is our message any different from the message the criminals who are attacking Indians in Australia are trying to convey?
The Australian Cricket teams have toured India many times in the last few years. They have toured India when they had every right not to tour because of serious internal security situation. High level Australian officials including the Prime Minister have visited India in 2009. This shows commitment on their part to further build upon the already great relationship. We have to reciprocate and show a hand of friendship. This is not the time or place to discuss patriotism or national pride.
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Category: Sports & Entertainment
Ok Here i do Differ from you, I am not a fan of shiv sena or any political party , But I strongly favour that , Australia should not be allowed to play, That Australia is boycotted. Because if you look at statistics Australia is minting money on there education program and doing too little for the security of the students. This is a serious matter, australia toured because they were given enough proof for there security, but anyway the question is not about Cricket here..
We all know our Indian mentality is always asking , hame yeh de do , hame woh de do, WHY should we ask all the time, Our political parties dont have a back bone cause they are too self centred ..
Its hight time we stood up for something for Once .. IF this was happening to Chinece students or american students .. SITUATION would be completely different.
And the message we are giving them is not of CRIME, its a democratic way, shiv sena may go wrogn way but all parties should get together and simply say AUSTRALIANS not wanted end of.. If an indian pickpockets a foreginer its all over the news and oh india is so bad, india is this blah blah .. well my reply is DONT COME then…
India should stop cricketing ties or any ties with this country.. only then something will happen… Gone are the gandhian principles you hit us we will take more.. SORRY you hit us WE HIT YOU BACK….
Sorry for such a harsh comment.. but then these are my views on australian policy, they should do soemthing….
Bikram … I do not think that this is because of inadequate security in universities. Many of these attacks are happening far away from the university. I am also not sure what we stand to gain by preventing Australia from playing in India other than ruining a relationship with a friendly nation. We are assuming that they will work harder at solving these cases if there is a ban. But aren’t there other political ways to send this message?
Well it has not worked so far, with the education minister from australia and there tourism minister coming to India and going on record they will be doing something. There have been cases where the police has not taken any notice and calmly decided its not related to Race. So the talking has not worked. Its time for action and moreover why is it that only politcial measures to be taken, why are we so afraid of other countries. Yeah friendly with Australia .. So this is not hoe friends behave. Its there duty too , to do something and SHow they are doing something.
The political way of the message has not worked Our prime minister had asked theres to look into it, it did not work. Its time for OZ to walk the TALK.. rather then just Talk.
:)
I also support the SS in not allowing Australians to play in Mumbai.
They should not be allowed in India,why only Mumbai?
Where will the uranium for our nuclear power plants come from?
well so for uranium we let our kids get killed… Australia earns enough from our students…
Relationship between two nations should not be decided or affected because of what a few criminals in one country are doing. The individuals who are attacking the Indians want Indians out of Australia, they also want the India-Australia relationship to fail. By banning Australia we are playing right into the hands of those racist elements.
There are 450 million Indians who live without electricity. Nuclear power is the only option and Australia is the only country that can give us Uranium. Over 70,000 Indian citizens have been killed by militants in Kashmir since 1988 and India has not reacted. We still play cricket with Pakistan? So why ban Australia?
Well Paksitan is not earning anything from india, it is not coming and asking students the next generation of the country to come an visit its place.
I know things will deteriorate but how else do you think the world will wake up to these incidents. And its not just a few criminals wanting indians out.. It has been reported how the Police did not do anything too.
We did ban playing cricket with pakistan. I am not saying jsut cricket stop everything, and once Australian economy is hit a BIT, then they will do something. and All the laws and security will be taken care for in a jiffy.
So to make people listen you have to sometimes make a Noise.. Shaheed sardar bhagat singh did that.. Look what happened.. So Sometimes NOISE is a Must.
As usual your articles are excellent and please dont take anything personally these are just my views. I envy how you write and write almsot everyday on different topics. Kudos…
I don’t take it personally Bikram. Difference of opinion is fine.