Last month, I received several emails from a man named Aveer Singh Dhaliwal. I’m sure many others received the same mails. I tried emailing him asking him if he’d like to come forward and speak his mind on community problems to The Indian Sun. Instead, he sent me a few more emails accusing community leaders of wrong-doings.
His first mail came in November last year, following the Sunny Leone publicity tour controversy that brought election trouble for Liberal party candidate Nitin Gursahni who was dumped by his party a week before polling day.
A “furious” Aveer sent out an email to many in the community claiming that Nitin was trapped by ministerial advisers and he should be given justice. Soon after the Sunny show, Aveer sent out another email accusing Indian newspapers of supporting Jasvinder Siddhu. Another email suggested how Ravi Ragupathy, editor and publisher of Tamil Murasu Australia, had “exposed” Mr. Siddhu. Aveer was going back and forth with his accusations, turning his guns on everyone in the community. One day his email accused Mr. Siddhu, the next day it supported him. I’m still not sure what he really feels.
You may ask me why I should dedicate so much time to discussing Aveer. Well, it is because Aveer – who is clearly a fictitious character thought up by someone who does want their real identity known — is the symbol of a trend in our community, where people are creating names and fake email ids from which to lash out on various issues.
It is a fast growing and most popular method used by a few to bring down or embarrass the community. Last year, when the IFFM film festival was being organised a barrage of anonymous emails from various fake ids were sent out, either attacking or defending organisers. There were emails even sent out to the minister accusing us of running a campaign against the festival. The emails were sent from different names. Most of them were sent out to mainstream press and ministers and cc’d or bcc’d to everyone else in the community. Ministers and their advisers are left confused. We were left embarrassed.
There are over 20 Indian newspapers, and we are still unable to carry out our debates in an ethical manner. Instead, a number or people resort to character assassination and mud-slinging under fake identities, giving the impression that these emails are a genuine reflection of resentment in the community.
We at The Indian Sun stand for dialogue and debate. We are open, free and independent. We’d like to publish views that are not maligning, that steer clear from being chauvinistic. We stand against character assassination in the public domain through anonymous emails. We stand for ethical and just debates and we request the Aveers of the world to come forward and make use of the various platforms available to them to debate and air their resentment. Guerilla tactics will bring more harm to us as a community than good. It will belittle us.
I’ve given up on Aveer, though he still occasionally sends me his love, but most of the time his hate.
If you wish to debate any issue about the community through this platform, write to me at sri@theindiansun.com.au
Have a great February!
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