The careless and shameful excuse by an Indian driver who killed Melbourne teen
In the past few months, Australians have been pre-occupied by the criminal and terrorist-related activities of Islamic and African migrants that occur throughout this country and the Western world. We do not hear much from other racial, ethnic and religious groups that come to Australia, save for the occasional headlines expressing distrust over Chinese migrants and tourists, especially those with links to the Communist Part of China.
Criminal activity among other migrant groups are usually rare, and most of them assimilate to our culture, which means only ethno-nationalists and nostalgic supporters of the White Australia Policy scrutinise these groups. Indian migrants to Australia are considered to be one such group, even One Nation emphasises the fact that Hindus assimilate to Australian culture and contrasts them to Islamic migrants. Yet regressives hail from all migrant groups that arrive at our shores, and the headlines making rounds in Australian society yesterday makes this fact blatantly clear.
In 2009, a man was involved in a fatal car crash that killed 19-year-old Melbournian student Dean Hofstee. This man, Puneet Puneet, was a learner driver and he was drink driving, yet he fled to India, where he was arrested four years late. Now, he is fighting his extradition, and he is doing so in the most careless and pathetic of ways: by claiming Australia is racist and dangerous for Indians.
Many Indians would disavow such bizarre claims made by an individual responsible for the death of an Australian teenager. Yet two Australians have rallied to his support: Indian-born chef Jayant Dagore, currently living in Victoria, and Melbourne-born designer Anna Maria D’Annibale. This is how this situation has become a disgrace, two Australians (one of Indian heritage), now support an individual who killed a pedestrian while drink driving under a learner license. And they are saying Australia is racist.
Dagore has stated “Indians are not safe in Australia, and every case against India has some racial point into it”. “Puneet should be free,” continued “India should help Puneet, not Australia.” I ask Mr Dagore, where did the situation take place? It took place in Australia, not India. Meaning what? Meaning that this situation should be solved in Australia.
This is just a classic example of how many of today’s migrants use the victimisation narrative in order to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions and prevent themselves from facing the justice they deserve. We see this from the Islamic community all the time, with excuses ranging from cultural differences to mental illnesses. Justice is justice, and justice should be served.
Even from Puneet’s perspective, wouldn’t logic entail he come to Australia? Wouldn’t he rather spend his jail-time in a five-star Australian prison rather than live out his days in an Indian prison? But then again, maybe that is what he deserves. Maybe it’s better to deny him the Australian prison treatment (which includes the full range of human rights standards and taxpayer-funded lifestyle), and make him endure jail time in India instead.
D’Annabelle (the other individual who flocked to Puneet’s side), does have a point in saying that Australia should extradite Australian citizens who have committed crimes in foreign countries. But this has two problems: Australia already does that, and this has nothing to do with racism. But even if Australia doesn’t reciprocate its treatment of foreign criminals to its treatment of Australians who have committed crimes overseas, so what? Is it that odd to see a country attempt to save its own citizens? If a non-white country has the same inconsistency, would D’Annabelle label them as racist?
The point remains that using racism as an excuse is complete and utter garbage, and as someone of Southern Asian descent, I find this individual to be an embarrassment. The even greater embarrassment resides within Jayant Dagore, who has the nerve to prevent Puneet from facing justice by trying to shift public attention to something non-existent. We may have a new regressive in Australia, and if this trend continues, it will only reflect badly on the Indian community.