Louise Roberts: The government is preventing its citizens escaping India’s hellhole
Thousands of Indian-Australians now stranded in their COVID-hit birthplace are rightly furious that their own government is leaving them to a dangerous fate, writes Louise Roberts.
Opinion
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Do we want Aussies dying in India? Of course not.
But do we want to prevent them from escaping a virus hellhole for the security of our shores, comfort and medical assistance? Yes, apparently.
We’re circling the drain on decency if we think it’s OK to threaten Aussies with jail time and a $66,000 fine simply for exercising their democratic right — to come home.
Smug with our success in “beating” this virus, we now have a worldwide dignity and image problem of our own creation.
Our famed generosity of spirit is being crushed by an “insular peninsula” style mindset that the Federal government ordered nationwide late last Friday via the Biosecurity Act.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the government acted on medical advice to keep us safe from India while it is gripped by a COVID-triggered humanitarian disaster.
The emergency law could see anyone who has been in India in the past 14 days charged with a crime after some Aussies used a loophole to return from India via Doha.
We’re told the ban is in effect until May 15, but what will be different in less than two weeks?
And a five-figure penalty or a stint in prison is not going to fix coronavirus. Death from COVID is a real possibility in India. Why wouldn’t you take a chance to get back here?
There’s still the two week quarantine to do once you land, or maybe the confidence in that system has evaporated too — on both sides.
And infuriatingly, we are still obsessed with the idea that one day we can live virus-free as a nation.
We need to stop the zero risk mentality. We are stuck on an elimination track, like a needle in the groove of an LP record. Over and over and over again.
Look at the weekend footage of shell-shocked family members using their fingers to sift through the ashes of a relative’s COVID-ravaged corpse at a funeral pyre in New Delhi.
Listen to the anecdotes of citizens here trying to buy an oxygen canister for their relatives gasping at them over WhatsApp.
And the statistics, almost cartoon-like in their ridiculously terrifying numbers. The sun rises and sets here — after another brilliant autumn day in our cosy lives — while another 350,000 people in India are diagnosed with COVID-19.
The bodies pile up, by necessity wedged on top of each other in ambulances en route to morgues with absolutely no chance of admitting them.
There’s also a dwindling supply of critical drugs for treating serious cases of the virus, let alone those being killed by it.
An estimated 9000 Aussies are trapped there.
India, with a population of 1.3 billion, has tried to look after its citizens and yet the coronavirus is out of control.
But we have not blocked the Brits or the Americans from entering Australia.
You can get in even if you are from Brazil, home to one of the most infamous coronavirus deniers in Jair Bolsonaro.
He is, of course, the far-right president who said vaccines will turn people into crocodiles and told his fellow Brazilians to “stop whining” about the country’s deaths from the virus, which have exceeded 270,000.
It’s the second highest toll in the world after the United States. Bolsonaro has since signed into law three new measures designed to accelerate vaccine purchases. More to save his skin than the citizens.
But the deathly damage was done. And India of course may surpass this.
No doubt you’ve heard the alternate argument: they all chose to go to India. They knew the risks.
I hope the government doesn’t give those millionaire cricketers any special treatment.
Arguments such as “it is only responsible and acceptable decision by our government” and “it’s a hard decision but the right one” I’ve heard more than once this week.
We are at our best when faced with adversity and more galvanised to help and cherish our fellow citizens. But we are turning our backs and Australian-Indians are rightly confused.
And what will come next will be anger, visceral anger, because when have they looked the other way when we need community hands on deck?
The bushfires? No. The floods? No. And many, many more scenarios where being human and caring and selfless was more important than panicking.
A colleague’s friend, Gurnam Singh, detailed his anguish in a text exchange that illustrated the blanket despair of this new law.
Singh says: “That’s lots of people now stuck in India and if any Australians die, who will be responsible?
“We are Aussies but why are our friends and families being threatened? This did not happen in the US or Europe.
“The Morrison government promised that all stranded Aussies will be back by Christmas.
“Why can’t all Aussie citizens be quarantined instead when they return home?
“We are Australian Indians who helped and contributed in the bushfire and other crises. The government can’t treat us like this.”
Yes, the PM is responsible for the whole nation, not “just a bunch of tourists and cricketers”.
But we are responsible for our legacy as Aussies. Let’s not forget that leaving no man or woman behind is in our DNA.
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