Indian community in Australia has demanded apology from the West Australian for calling India a “hell” in their latest piece titled “Ban on trips from Indian hell.”
The letter written by President of the Indian Society of Western Australia (ISWA), a peak body that represents more than 80 Indian origin associations with 30,000 members says that the community is “disappointed with the style of journalism that is devoid of ethics and humanity.”
Supriya Guha, President of ISWA, further adds that the published article is “full of sensational and biased language – describing India and ‘Indians’ – in the utmost derogatory and discriminatory fashion.”
Recently, many Indian community members have voiced their concerns in relation to the coverage of events in newspapers abroad that may give rise to racism and Hinduphobia.
Prominent members of Indian diaspora in Australia have also tweeted against the West Australian’s coverage at a time when diaspora is worried about the safety of their loved ones in India.
The Indian diaspora in Australia is ware of the seriousness of the situation in India and has requested all local newspapers to show some compassion to a country that went out of its way to help 95 countries with timely supply of COVID vaccine.
Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned media against jumping to conclusions about the new coronavirus variant discovered in India, saying it had not yet classified it as worrying.
WHO believes it is possible that the British coronavirus variant may have affected India’s epidemiological situation.
The British, South African and Brazilian variants of Covid-19 have all been classified by the WHO as “variants of concern.”
