Murder of Neeraj Garg.. the racism in Australia continues

Finally Australia has started coming out from the state of denial to recognizing that there is a problem of racism in the country.

The sooner the Australian government realizes this, the bettter off they are. It takes a lot of political will to fight racism or any other kind of identity clash between civilizations. An Indian must know since we are dogged with such clashes since the birth of Christ (and it is an idiom, so don't get started on political correctness of this phrase) between Hindus vs Muslims, Upper Caste vs Lower Caste, Marathis vs North Indians, North Indians vs South Indians, Tamil vs Hindi.. you name it.

Arrival of Immigrants in Australia is not something new. However, Australia is witnessing something they are not used to. A rapid increase in immigration. Austraian government has put reforms in place which enables Australia to tap into the international talent pool and thus fast track its growth...well.. in theory.

The reaction to those reforms is that students from countries like India, China etc are attracted to come to Australia to become a part of the growth story the government is trying to create. This should be seen as a measurement of success.

However, the fast speed of immigration does change the look and feel of the country demographics. People, who are used to seeing things in a certain way, feel a little uneasy with increased number of unfamiliar faces around them. Compare this situation to the guests who come to your house in big numbers and don't leave for months.

This is the phase where government and other social outfits need to step in and talk about the culture of diversity, inclusiveness and benefits of a multi cultural society. They need to ensure that the people see the value and understand that diversity should be celebrated and feel proud of it. Lack of such political and social attempt results into racism, apartheid, rise of seggregationists. The price of neglecting this situation is really high and the society suffers from this for ages to come.

Australia is at a very sensitive stage of its reforms. If they don't sit up and take a note of this butterfly effect, they will eventually be fighting these demons forever.