After three days of death, destruction, desperate need for aid.

A cry beneath the rubble.

A translator quick on his feet.

A baby unscathed. Dazed, glazed in dust.

Fate? Good fortune? Hand of god?

Whatever it means, however it happened, there it is.

Sliver of hope.

To say that relations between India and Australia are currently strained would be an understatement. Since the attack of accounting graduate Nitin Garg nine days ago, tensions have run high.

Mr Garg who was on his way to his job at a Hungry Jack’s fast food outlet, was stabbed in Cruickshank Park, West Footscray, Melbourne, on Saturday night. He stumbled to his workplace, bleeding and pleading for help. But was later pronounced dead in hospital.

At his funeral in Jagraon, the northern Indian state of Punjab, Jan 10, a deep sadness prevailed.

No parent who sends their child overseas to study, expects to see them return in a coffin.

There was also outrage.

”All we want is that no other family should suffer this loss and that no other Indian student in Australia should lose his life,” said another uncle, Satish Kumar. ”The Indian Government must act to stop this madness.”

Photo: Reuters

With Mr Garg’s funeral comes the investigagion of an attack on another Indian man, Jaspreet Singh, 29, who is in a Melbourne hospital with burns to 15 per cent of his body. Mr Singh alleges he was doused with petrol and set alight by a group of four males after he parked his car near his home in Essendon about 2am on Saturday.

But the police have countered there is no evidence to support the attack was racially motivated and the incident, which Detective Acting Sen-Sgt Neil Smyth describes as “a bit strange”, continues to be shrouded in mystery. There have even been suggestions that Mr Singh set fire to himself for financially exploitative reasons.

All of which has led to a whole lot of finger-pointing between the governments, to say nothing of racial debates that have been a long time coming.

Yesterday the Indian Government called for increased efforts to curb violent attacks and an end to the exploitation of students in Australia by dodgy colleges and greedy employers.

The Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Vayalar Ravi, said Australia should also crack down on unscrupulous college operators, and employers who paid students less than the minimum wage.

He said Australian police were quick to arrest students for visa violations, such as working more than the allowed 20 hours a week during term time, but did little to catch those exploiting them.

”If the Government can be so strict in arresting the students who work more than 20 hours because they are violating the law, why can’t they arrest the employer who is not paying the minimum wage?”

- Sydney Morning Herald January 11, 2010

Many opinions have been published from both sides of the fence, though I find one – “Why Indians are terrified after death of Nitin Garg” by Gautam Gupta, spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students Of Australia, in The Herald-Sun on Jan 6 – of particular interest. Not merely for its content but the response it attracted upon publication.

The article goes as follows:

THE 70,000 or so Indian tertiary-level students in Victoria learn many things, some from their peers, some from those who have been through the system already and some from their friends.

It’s a steep learning curve for them all.

They learn just how much their parents must pay to send them here, they learn about how Australian society operates, they learn about how the transport system works, they learn about the delicate balance between earning a degree or other qualification and earning their keep at the same time.

Does Victoria have a problem with racially-motivated violence? Have your say below.

It’s a process of constant osmosis. It is a completely new life experience in a foreign land, thousands of miles away from their families and their loved ones and from all those in whom they habitually put their entire trust.

But the solitary thing that no one has ever taught them is how to send a body back home.

This was precisely the challenge that confronted the housemates of Nitin Garg after the 21-year-old university graduate was fatally stabbed on Saturday night, just before starting work as night manager at a Hungry Jack’s store in West Footscray.

His friends had already dealt with the whole gamut of emotions. First there was the shock, when they received a phone call from one of Garg’s co-workers, telling them he had been stabbed but that it seemed to be a minor wound.

Then came the hope, sustaining them as they travelled as quickly as they could to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Next came the fear, when they were told by a doctor that their friend was in a critical condition and that his chances of survival were perilously slim.

And finally came grief, followed by an entire gamut of emotions, when they were told that he had died but that they could not see the body.

Among the many questions I asked his grief-stricken housemates was whether anybody had offered them assistance of any sort. Had a state-level politician spoken to them, or perhaps someone from Canberra?

The answer was no. Had anyone from the Indian Government been in touch with them? Again, no.

This was less than 24 hours after Garg’s death, but no one in authority had been in contact with them to find out how they were coping.

These young guys, in their 20s, had no support system. On the face of it, they said they were coping with the tragedy, but I honestly feel the sorrow had not even begun to sink in.

I asked if they needed any financial assistance, but they said they were fine. So I gave them the contact details for a psychologist and I recommended that they seek trauma counselling.

Quite honestly, what kind of society leaves youngsters to find their own solution to a crisis like this?

As they cope with their own torrent of emotions, they’re not studying and you could also understand it if they chose not to work this week. What a plight – they’ve had to wear the cost of many phone calls to India, not just to the shattered Garg family back there, but also to organise the repatriation of their friend’s body.

In this kind of situation, support is not just about the money, it’s about infrastructure that students can use at a time when they’re most vulnerable.

After the death, I had to be extremely aware of their sensitivities. In their shock and as they struggled to cope with the tragedy, they might have said “yes” to some of my questions about their welfare when they meant “no” and “no” when indeed they meant “yes”.

But this is precisely why I have put my career as an audiologist on hold. To me, it is more important to serve FISA (the Federation of Indian Students of Australia) in a voluntary capacity.

I left my practice in December 2008, with the intention of volunteering here for a month or so.

Each month I think it might be worthwhile to stay on for another few weeks – and each time, something happens to another Indian student and I resolve to stay here until we can make a difference.

FISA does not receive any funding, but the most important thing for me is to try to make a difference. I was not raised to look on in silence when I can make a difference to the lives of thousands of students.

All up, it costs an Indian student about $60,000 for a two-year course or about $45,000 for a trade course here in Victoria. That’s a huge financial burden for their families back home.

Yes, we all understand that no amount of money can possibly guarantee their safety, but every Australian should be concerned about the persistent violence.

Now, with a death that has sent shock waves through the whole Indian community, I feel as if things are getting cumulatively harder instead of easier.

The strange thing is that the State Government refuses to acknowledge the issue of racism that needs to be legitimately debated after the continuing attacks on Indian students in Melbourne.

If you asked me my opinion, I would definitely say there is an element of racism in Australia – and this is backed by academic research from the Australian National University.

The fact Pauline Hanson can get a mandate, however small, in this country says something about this issue.

I do accept that by and large this is not a racist country, but even if 10 per cent of the total population do not conform with the majority view, it follows that every tenth person you encounter on the street, aboard a train or tram or in the workplace could well hold racist views.

Despite the great work done by many sections of society to make our students feel welcome, it just takes one person or one incident to take us back to the very beginning and make us feel that no progress has been made at all.

But still we continue to bury our heads in the sand and say the attacks on Indian students are not race-related.

Well, let me tell you that the public – and by extension, the authorities as well – do not hear about all the incidents.

In the main, this was because many students were under the mistaken impression that if they made a formal report about an attack, they would be stripped of their visas and sent home.

To this day, under-reporting is still a problem because of this common misconception, despite our efforts to tell students that no action can be taken unless reports are lodged.

The public also has the mistaken impression that only Indian males are being attacked. This is not the case. Female students from India have been attacked. But they refuse to contact officials because they are scared that their parents will immediately order them back to India.

There have been break-ins while these students have been at home and laptops and other pieces of equipment have been stolen, but the women will not make official reports.

Let’s assume, for a moment, that these are not race-related crimes. Then can someone please tell me why ANU data shows fresh graduates of Indian or Asian background have 64 per cent less chance of finding permanent employment in their chosen fields?

Here are some of the comments that ensued:

• Get Real of Melbourne

  Mr Gupta you are nothing but a stirrer and you border on being a parasite preying on there being sufficient Indian victims of crime in order to prolong your moment of fame and being in the spotlight; before all of this you were a nobody. We are sick of hearing your drama queen pronouncements.

• MCS

  Bullies pick on easy targets – by themselves late at night in areas that most of us are too wise to find ourselves in the dark. Walking the streets of West Footscray at night – no chance and I am not Indian – just an Aussie who could probably handle myself better than those who have not grown up here or had to wise up when getting on the train as a 16 year old. Its not racial – just easy targets

• Hayley

  GO HOME THEN!!!! LEAVE AUSTRALIA!!! That is what we are trying to get you to do. Get out!

• Raoul Machal of Melbournistan

  We don’t have a racial problem, we have a violence problem. In this state decent people of many races get killed, stabbed, glassed, king-hit and aggitated by retarded, anti-social yobs of many races. All this while our smug bureaucrats in Spring Street look on, utter meaningless PR spin and keep sitting on their well greased hands. With a police gone to the fairies and a loony left judiciary firmly focused on rehabilitating and comforting the offenders, decent people in this state have the same hope as a snow ball in hell.

• Blanche

  It is very sad and tragic. But one has to be careful before giving this incident a racist tag. Did the culprits look at his skin colour before they stabbed Nitin? I don’t think so. And would anyone I know Indian, Italian, Macedonain, Greek or Aussie walk across an extensive park alone at night?The answer is a resounding “no”. The issue is that students coming here are simply not street wise. They live sheltered lives back home in India, and there is no guidance at all once they arrive here. Crime is undoubtedly on the increase, and it is not directed only towards Indian students. Until the police have more powers and offenders get more than just a slap on the wrist, I don’t think this situation will get any better.

• Steven of Melbourne.

  Hey guess what Gautam – it’s not just you Indians, we’re all terrified. You’re nothing special, we’re all at risk in Melbourne…….

• nbmbmnbmn

  rubbish,why don’t you stop going to Oz.

• Peter of lilydale

  They have to be joking. They come from a country where life is so cheap. You never hear about the continual bombings over there unless it affects one of us. The civil fueds, the popverty…

• Unis v Courses of Melbourne

  The Indian students who do hairdressing or hospitality courses are been duped into thinking there are jobs for the asking. University degreed students have a higher percentage of finding positions. Australia should not have encouraged students to come for courses which have been shown to be a sham but sometimes run by Indian themselves.

• Victor Stavros
  

  Oh stop your complaining!… Perhaps it is difficult to get a job here because your cousins in India can do you job at the fraction of the cost. Just because you come over and get educated, doesn’t mean you are better than other people with the same education. What happened to that Indian person who was involved in a fatal hit and run and has fled back to his country?… If you don’t like it here, go to another country and stop wasting our time!…

When an incident or a series of incidents such as this erupts, what proceeds is often as telling as what occurred.

Mr Garg’s funeral is over but police don’t seem to be any closer to finding his killer.

While nobody is happy Mr Garg is dead or how he died, the prevailing sentiment is he should not have been walking alone so late at night in such a precarious location. In such a situation, nobody is safe.

And most revealing of all, while many are quick to defend Australia and assert it is not a racist country, they are just as quick to tell unhappy students, residents and citizens to GO HOME.