‘Butt of the joke’: Hindu Council slams ‘fearmongering’ ABC report on Indian spies in Australia

Australia’s Hindu community has slammed what it claims is an “unfair” and “fearmongering” expose about the extent of India’s spying in the country.

Australia’s Hindu community has slammed what it claims is an “unfair” and “fearmongering” ABC expose about the extent of India’s spying in the country.

Four Corners on Monday night revealed fresh details about the alleged “nest of spies” that were quietly booted from the country in 2020 after an investigation by Australia’s intelligence agencies.

It also uncovered what the broadcaster described as “the promotion of far-right Hindu ideology” by supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “the quiet amassing of political power”.

Indian intelligence officers, some posing as diplomats in India’s high commission, were allegedly trying to gain access to sensitive defence technology and airport security protocols, targeting former and current politicians and police services, and were monitoring and threatening members of Australia’s Indian community, according to the report.

Anthony Albanese with Narendra Modi in Sydney last year. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

In 2021, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess revealed the agency had identified and dealt with a “nest of spies” operating in Australia, without naming the country.

“We confronted the foreign spies, and quietly and professionally removed them,” Mr Burgess said at the time.

While publicly, relations between the two countries seemed better than ever, behind the scenes Australia was unhappy about India’s spy operations, which have been characterised as on par with those of Russia and China.

At least four intelligence officers were asked to leave Australia, according to the ABC.

It comes after The Washington Post reported in April that two officers working for India’s spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), were expelled from Australia.

The RAW has previously been implicated in suspected assassinations of Sikh activists in the UK and Canada.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong deflected questions about the reports last month, saying they would not comment on intelligence matters.

Mr Modi won re-election for a third term this month. Picture: Anindito Mukherjee/Getty Images

Asked during an ABC TV interview whether India could still be considered a friend given the revelations, Treasurer Jim Chalmers also said he did not “want to get into those kinds of operational issues in any way”.

“We’ve got a good relationship with India and with other countries in the region, it’s an important economic relationship, it’s become closer in recent years as a consequence of efforts on both sides, and that’s a good thing,” Dr Chalmers said.

The Four Corners report also detailed the activities of a Hindu nationalist group called the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), a sister organisation of India’s far-right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the progenitor of Mr Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

HSS has at least 30 branches across Australia and runs camps for children and adults where participants are taught a martial art called Danda, which involves heavy bamboo sticks — used by Hindu nationalist mobs in anti-Muslim riots in India.

Former HSS instructor Arjun Nidigallu told Four Corners he had seen children and the camps being told to chant a slogan translating to “India belongs to the Hindus”.

“I had to walk away after that,” he said.

Australia publicly has strong relations with India. Picture: Dean Lewins/Getty Images

A spokesperson for the organisation told the broadcaster that the practice was “similar to many self-defence training arts across Australia … it is a skill set used for improving spatial awareness and motor co-ordination”.

“HSS takes inspiration from RSS with respects to character development in serving our local society,” they said.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Hindu Council of Australia suggested the ABC report may “inadvertently promote intolerance or discrimination” and presented a “consistent bias and unfair representation of Hindus and our culture, particularly for those who are living in Australia”.

“This is not the first time the ABC has undermined the contributions of Australian Hindus and belittled our culture, values and belief system without any context, or inclusion of viewpoints of the wider Hindu community,” Hindu Council national president Sai Paravastu said.

“The ABC’s continual alienation of one of the largest populations in Australia, who contribute the most to the economy, is hurtful and feels like a rejection of our community, who are simply attempting to preserve our cultural heritage and pass it down to our children. It is pure racism to label these attempts as immoral and to interpret our right to participate in Australian politics as infiltration.”

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said the agency found a ‘nest of spies’. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire

Mr Paravastu added that “in a world where Indian and Hindu people are often the butt of the joke, these biased judgments only make it harder to live as a multicultural citizen, especially for the younger generation of Australian-born Indians”.

“Fear-mongering to produce a piece of media that will grab the attention of the audience seems like an attempt to save a media company which is steadily losing viewership, due to its clear biases and the production of fake news.”

The ABC has been contacted for comment.

Mr Modi, who first came to power a decade ago, won re-election for a third consecutive term earlier this month but fell far short of an expected landslide, with one rival branding it a “huge political loss” and a “clear moral defeat”.

Many in India’s 200 million-plus Muslim minority are increasingly uneasy about their futures in the constitutionally secular country.

Mr Modi himself made several strident comments about Muslims on the campaign trail, referring to them as “infiltrators”.

Originally published as ‘Butt of the joke’: Hindu Council slams ‘fearmongering’ ABC report on Indian spies in Australia