- Monday, April 29, 2024
A Hindu devotee will hand over to the Indian leader a three-page letter signed by more than 1,600 Australian Hindus at a grand reception arranged for him in Sydney on May 23.
By: Shubham Ghosh
At a time when the Hindu community and temples are being repeatedly threatened by extremists such as Khalistan supporters and their sympathisers in Australia, members of community groups and victims of such attacks have requested Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to urgently raise the issue with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese.
Modi is set to visit Australia next week and will have a bilateral meeting with the premier of the host nation.
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Members of the Hindu community are worried in the wake of a series of disturbing acts unleashed on them by Khalistan supporters in a number of big Australian cities such as Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney since the beginning of 2023.
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In January, the walls of the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in Melbourne’s northern suburb of Mill Park were desecrated. Saran Patel, a resident of Melbourne who visits the temple every morning before heading for work, was the first to notice the act.
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“When I reached the temple that morning all walls were coloured with graffiti of Khalistani hatred towards Hindus.” he told The Australia Today and tearfully said he wanted to see the culprits going to jail. The police of Victoria have not been able to identify the perpetrators yet.
In March, Brisbane’s Shree Laxmi Narayan Temple was attacked and its boundary walls were vandalised by pro-Khalistan supporters.
Rohini Balamunde, a devotee of the temple, told the news outlet that it was distressing to experience such acts of hatred and accused the Australian authorities of not listening and acting even after Khalistan supporters target Hindu temples.
Earlier in May, the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in Rosehill suburb of western Sydney was vandalised. The New South Wales Police released CCTV images of suspects after the public made a desperate appeal in tracking them down.
People like Balamunde are now planning to raise the matter in the presence of Modi in Australia.
On May 23, she will visit Sydney where the Indian Australian community is arranging for a grand reception for the prime minister.
She has also penned a three-page long letter to present to Modi and said she gathered more than 1,600 signatures from the Australian Hindu community and wants to hand it over to Modi, The Australia Today, which saw the letter, said.
The Hindu devotee also said that the Indian prime minister should raise the matter with his Australian counterpart. She said if Modi did not, who else would care for Indian Australian Hindus.
There have been as many as six Hinduphobic attacks on Hindu Temples in Australia in the last five months.
Besides, the Hindu community has also been terrorised by other means. In January, the Khalistan supporters announced a propaganda referendum event and when the Indian Australian community did not respond to the extremists’ call, the latter from the US, Canada and Europe became desperate and they started attacking the Hindu community in Australia.
On January 29, Khalistan supporters attacked a peaceful Melbourne ‘Tiranga (Tricolour) March’ and some of the Hindus were mercilessly thrashed.
Not a single arrest has been made by the police in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales in connection to these incidents.
Sachin Gaur, who was among those attacked by the Khalistan supporters in Melbourne, told The Australia Today that he knew Modi has raised the issue of attacks on Hindu temples with Albanese but reminded that the attack on the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in Sydney still happened.
“PM Modi should take his Australia visit as an opportunity to discuss a working strategy on Khalistan menace and Hindu security issues with PM Albanese,” he was quoted as saying by the news outlet.
“Please ask PM Albanese, why this apathy with Australian Hindus and their religious institution.”
Modi spoke about vandalism of Hindu temples in Australia in a joint press statement with Albanese in New Delhi in March when the latter visited India.
The Indian leader said that reports of attacks on Hindu temples in Australia were distressing and that the Australian premier assured him that the safety of Indian Australians remained a priority for him.
Hindu community members are now hoping that Albanese gives some form of reassurance of action against Khalistani goons when he joins Modi at Qudos Bank Arena Stadium in Sydney on Tuesday for a grand reception which will feature more than 20,000 people.
