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Diaspora wants India-Australia ties to grow stronger: Ex-Consul General
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IANS | 22 May, 2023
The eight lakh-plus strong Indian diaspora in Australia wants the
bilateral relationship to grow stronger and has no major expectations
from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to the country after
eight years, says India's former consulate General to Sydney.
After
attending key multilateral summits as part of his three-nation tour,
Modi will land in Australia on May 23 to address more than 20,000
members of the Indian community at the Qudos Bank Arena Stadium in
Sydney.
"There are no major expectations that the diaspora has
from the visit, apart from seeing the bilateral relationship grow
stronger. They feel a sense of pride at the honour bestowed on the prime
minister by the Australian side," Amit Dasgupta, Consul General of
India to Sydney from 2009 to 2012, told IANS.
"A transformation
in the relationship occurred during the Prime Minister's first visit and
since then, all we have seen is a rapid growth in the bilateral
relationship cutting across multiple verticals."
In 2014, Modi
became the first Indian prime minister to visit Australia after Rajiv
Gandhi, where he addressed 20,000 people at the Sydney SuperDome at
Olympic Park and said that in coming years more Indian leaders would be
visiting Down Under.
"The prime minister's visit is a significant
event, especially because he ensures special time in his schedule for
interaction with the diaspora, and demonstrates, thereby, the importance
he attaches to them," Dasgupta, the Honorary Member in the General
Division of the Order of Australia, said.
The visit comes at a
crucial juncture when the Indian community faces the brunt of rising
Khalistani extremism with their temples and establishments targeted and
vandalised with anti-India graffiti.
While India has time and
again registered a strong protest with the Australian government asking
it to take swift action and bring perpetrators to the book, the attacks
have continued, most recently with vandals attacking the BAPS
Swaminarayan Temple with "declare Modi terrorist" graffiti.
"With
the strengthening of India-Australia relations, it is time to firmly
express concern that support to such persons is not in keeping with the
spirit of a strategic partnership," Dasgupta said.
According to a
research paper by Dasgupta and Pradeep S. Mehta, Secretary General of
CUTS International, the resident Indian community needs to find a common
cause against the pro-Khalistan and anti-India groups.
"Relationship
building succeeds only if it is a two-way process that reflects
conscious action in favour of the other party's concerns," the paper
said.
According to an Australia Today report, Indian community
members have written a three-page long letter with 1,623 signatures
about pain and suffering of Australian Hindus and want to present it to
Modi.
The Prime Minister's primary reason for visiting Australia
was the Quad Summit, which was cancelled after US President Joe Biden
pulled out at the last minute.
The third in-person summit was
instead held in Hiroshima on the sidelines of the G-7 summit on
Saturday, where its leaders opposed "destabilising or unilateral actions
that sought to change the status quo by force or coercion", without
naming China, which has aggressively pushed its territorial claims in
the region, including against India.
While other leaders
cancelled their visit to Australia, Modi, as he nears the end of his
second term as India's prime minister, chose to go ahead.
"Naturally,
it has worked out wonderfully, and the Australian government is making
this a full-on Modi visit," Dasgupta told IANS. The two nations share
multiple interests and concerns in the Indo-Pacific region, which makes
the visit opportune, he further said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who visited India this year, formally extended the invite to his Indian counterpart.
This
time, special "Modi Airways" flights have been arranged in Australia
for those who will travel thousands of kilometres to hear the prime
minister speak.
The Parramatta Council has formally extended an
invitation to Modi to visit Harris Park, informally referred to as
'Little India', this time, according to Media reports.
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