By Rich Bowden:
Up to 30,000 people are expected to attend the 23rd National Sikh Games in Brisbane this weekend, an event organisers hope will contribute to repairing strained relations between Australia and India.
Manjit Boparai, from the Punjabi Cultural Association, told Radio Australia the Games gave Australians an opportunity to experience Indian culture.
Referring to the difficulties experienced as a result of the recent downturn in relations between the two countries he said: “A few things happen and we apologise as a community you know its makes it sometimes hard, a lot of Indians they absolutely feel the way other Australians feel, they are always against the crime.”
According to the background to the National Sikh Games supplied by the Australian National Sikh Sports and Cultural Council (ANSSACC).
The Australian Sikh Games is an annual event consisting of Cultural Carnival and Sports Tournament . Apart from cultural events participating teams and athletes get together from around Australia (and some f rom overseas) to compete in various sports, such as but not limited to, Athletics, Basketball, Cricket , Golf , Hockey, Kabaddi, Netball , Squash, Soccer, Table Tennis, Tennis, Tug-O-War and Volleyball.
A number of alleged race-motivated attacks on Indians in the past year have contributed to a deterioration in relations between the two nations prompting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Foreign Minister Steven Smith to travel to India to meet with the country’s leaders.
With attacks on Indian students highlighted in the Indian media, PM Rudd told the Australian Parliament last year his country welcomed Indian students.
“I said to Prime Minister Singh the more than 90,000 Indian students in Australia are welcome guests in our country … and the more than 200,000 Australians of Indian descent are welcome members of the Australian family,” he said.
“I speak on behalf of all Australians when I say that we deplore and condemn these attacks. These are senseless acts of violence.”
For more information on Brisbane Sikh Games 2010 see here.
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