[Iyer, his wife and
young son were among the 220 Indian Australians who made the overnight trip
from Melbourne to Sydney aboard a specially chartered train known as the
Modi Express. The atmosphere was jubilant and festive, as passengers
anticipated Modi’s speech to a community audience on Monday afternoon.]
By Shalailah Medhora
India’s
prime minister is due to give a speech to a mainly Indian Australian audience
at a sold-out Allphones Arena in Sydney
 |
| Supporters of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, dance outside Southern Cross station in Melbourne as they prepare to ride an overnight train to Sydney for Modi’s community speech on Monday. Photograph: Mal Fairclough/AFP/Getty Images |
“Prime Minister Modi is the change we’ve been
looking for,” says Hari Iyer. “He’s the only one who can turn India’s fortunes
around.”
Iyer, an aerospace
engineer has lived in Australia for eight years. But his connection to his
homeland of India is still strong, and he has been
following Narendra Modi’s progress since before he was elected prime minister
in May.
Iyer, his wife and
young son were among the 220 Indian Australians who made the overnight trip
from Melbourne to Sydney aboard a specially chartered train known as the
Modi Express. The atmosphere was jubilant and festive, as passengers
anticipated Modi’s speech to a community audience on Monday afternoon.
Many Indian
Australians have welcomed Modi’s charismatic and engaging public persona as a
turning point for the country.
“Having him here
is an awesome thing. Indian Australians have two mothers – a birth mother and
an adoptive mother,” Iyer says. Bilateral relations between the two countries
have never been stronger, he says.
The president of
the Australian South Asian Federation, Aashish Gholkar, says Modi’s appeal is
partly due to this outward-looking approach to politics.
“India’s political
establishment has historically been insular,” Gholkar says. Reaching out to the
Indian diaspora has been a deliberate strategy to build Modi’s “aura”, Gholkar
says. “He is trying to get people to focus on things that unite.”
About 1.6% of Australia’s population were
born in India, making it one of the fastest growing migrant groups.
Many came to the
country in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the Howard government
introduced its revamped 457 visa program. Others came as students and
stayed on skilled migrant visas. India is one of Australia’s most significant
tertiary education markets.
India does not
offer dual citizenship with other countries, forcing migrants to relinquish
voting and other rights if they take on Australian citizenship. That has been a
sticking point for many new migrants. “I’d love to be able to vote in Indian
elections,” Iyer says.
Indian Australians
from around the country will fill the sold-out Allphones Arena in Sydney on
Monday afternoon to hear Modi speak. More than 30,000 people applied for
tickets.
The organiser of
the event, Balesh Singh, said more than 100 people were coming from overseas to
hear the leader, including from New Zealand, Fiji and South Africa.
Modi’s contentious
treatment of minorities and links to Hindu nationalist parties have angered
some ethnic and religious groups, who plan to hand over a petition calling for
change before the address on Monday.
Members of
Australia’s Sikh community want Modi to pursue the perpetrators of a series of
pogroms against the religious minority in 1984.
“Almost every
Sikh’s concern is that nothing has been done to arrest those responsible [for
the massacres],” the secretary of the National Sikh Council of Australia, Bawa
Jagdev says. “After numerous commissions nothing has been done.”
He says the fanfare
around Modi’s Australian appearance has been driven by Indian political groups,
a claim flatly denied by Singh.
“This is
completely community-funded,” Singh says. More than 200 community organisations
and 21,000 individuals contributed to pay for Modi’s address, he says.
Indian community
groups in Australia say opportunities have been missed for investment and
engagement, but Tony Abbott’s visit to India in September helped put the
bilateral relationship back on the Australian agenda.
The relationship
between Canberra and New Delhi has been on an upward trajectory in the past few
years, partly due to the Modi’s focus on diaspora communities, and partly
because of the shift in focus to Asia from successive Australian governments.
“There has been
inattention to India in recent years [but] there has been unprecedented levels
of high-level contact between the countries,” Danielle Rajendram from the Lowy
Institute says. “The relationship has bounced back from a low point in
2009-2010,” she adds, referring to a series of attacks on Indian students
living in Australia.
The economic
relationship between the two countries is strong, and both have a strategic
interest in the Indian Ocean. Details of bilateral naval exercises in the
Indian Ocean next year “are in the works”, Rajendram says.
The resolution of
the ban on selling uranium to India – due to its refusal to sign the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty – has also strengthened relations.
Rajendram says
about 70% of Indians saw the ban as a sticking point in the bilateral
relationship.
“It’s more
symbolic than practical in that sense. It signals India is a mature and
responsible nuclear power,” Rajendram says.
That policy paved
the way for a future free trade agreement with India.
“India is the next
frontier to conquer,” says Amitabh Mattoo, head of the Australia-India
Institute. “In the past, the India-Australia relationship has been marked by
missed opportunities and a lack of conversation. This relationship could be the
one for the future.”
