Government spin on Modi was already questionable. Now for an awkwardly timed book launch

Anthony Albanese is scheduled to launch Australia’s Pivot to India by Parramatta MP and chair of the Parliamentary Friends of India Andrew Charlton.

The launch, at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatre, is billed as “an event that will celebrate Australia’s relationship with India” and the Indian diaspora in Australia. Published by Black Inc, the book’s theme is illustrated by its cover, which is based on a photograph of Albanese and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi side by side in a golden chariot at a cricket match between India and Australia in Ahmedabad earlier this year. 

That image summarises both Charlton’s book and Australian aspirations for its relationship with India as an economic powerhouse and a counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific. Albanese and his predecessor, Scott Morrison, assiduously courted Modi, undeterred by his alleged role as chief minister of Gujarat in genocidal riots against Muslims in 2002, by his willingness to crush dissenting voices in media and academia, or by the slow-motion genocide-by-lynching in the name of cow protection which has been unleashed against Muslims, Dalits and Adivasi communities under his prime ministership.  

Last week’s statement by Justin Trudeau in which he claimed to have credible evidence implicating the Indian government in the assassination of a Sikh nationalist, who was also a Canadian citizen, on Canadian soil comes as an unwelcome disruption to the love-in between Modi and his political courtiers in Australia.

Albanese, however, seems resistant to the suggestion that the view from halfway up Modi’s arse has turned out to be far less scenic than advertised.

Asked whether he regretted referring to Modi as “the boss” when introducing him during his visit to Sydney earlier this year, Albanese said the journalist should just “chill out a bit”. Thus far, other members of the Five Eyes have been similarly tepid in their support for Trudeau (who was afforded “an older Toyota” rather than a golden chariot during his recent G20 visit to India). 

However, Trudeau’s statement makes the timing of Charlton’s book more than a little awkward. His book is clearly intended to reinforce Australia’s strategic and economic relationship with India and court support from the Indian diaspora in Australia — a very large number of whom live in his electorate. Charlton was parachuted into Parramatta from his $16 million mansion in Bellevue over the heads of a diverse range of local candidates. If the Liberals are halfway smart (doubtful, of course), they must be grooming a smart young Indian Australian to run against him next time. 

Spice shops and temples across Australia have become favoured locations for political meet-and-greets by politicians from both side of Parliament. But in their attempt to court voters of Indian origin, politicians have too often conflated Indian with Hindu (there are Muslim, Sikh and Christian Indians as well) and Hindu with Hindutva. Politicians including Morrison, Albanese, Penny Wong and of course Charlton have been photographed draped in the scarves of the Hindu nationalist VHP during community events.  

Modi is admittedly very popular in the diaspora, as he is in India itself. However, this popularity is far from as hegemonic as it may appear to politicians on the hustings. As Charlton himself notes, the Bharatiya Janata Party uses the global Indian diaspora as a “force multiplier” to build his image back home. On the other hand, Modi’s opponents among Indian Australians are wary of speaking out for fear of repercussions for family members back home and/or threats to their own safety here in Australia.

The news from Canada will only reinforce those fears. 

Needless to say, Charlton’s book does not even attempt to address these concerns. It provides a history of Indian-Australian relations that glides over any awkward moments, preferring to attribute the weak links between India and Australia to inattentiveness and misunderstanding than to Australian racism or Indian self-interest. Bob Hawke’s notorious Indira Gandhi joke, which set back Indian-Australian relations for years, is mentioned only in a footnote, where it is described as “a rude joke” rather than the sexist and racist jibe that it was. (Charlton refrains from repeating the joke, as do I, but it is readily available vis Google.)

The Morrison government’s decision to close the border to Australian nationals returning from India during the COVID-19 pandemic is glossed over as a brief disruption, rather than a traumatic event that cost the lives of Australians (and may have indirectly contributed to Charlton’s victory in Parramatta, given the large number of voters in that electorate who would have been directly or indirectly affected).

But if Charlton glosses over the failings of Australian politicians, his willingness to overlook Modi’s crimes is nothing short of breathtaking. He notes Modi’s authoritarian treatment of dissent from his critics, but states that “the impact of Modi’s tenure on Indian democracy is a complex and highly debated topic” — as though there is anything “complex” about condemning human rights abuses against ethnic and religious minorities.

No. The only “complex” issue here is balancing political and economic self-interest against ethical considerations (and ethical considerations have clearly been thrown overboard).

It’s shaping up to be an interesting book launch. The fallout from Trudeau’s speech is ongoing, with reports that Trudeau’s speech was based on “shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners”. Closer to home, Parramatta mayor Sameer Pandey, described by Charlton as the first mayor from the Indian community, was unceremoniously voted out by his fellow ALP councillors on Monday. The Sydney Morning Herald quotes an anonymous senior Parramatta member as describing this as a move that will “destroy Labor in Parramatta”.

Launched in the eye of storms both at home and abroad, Charlton’s book is as cynical a public relations exercise as anything served up by Scotty from marketing and as unpalatable as his notorious raw chicken curry.