‘I always had a strong sense of my Punjabi roots’

KV Prasad and Simran Sodhi

For an Indian-Australian whose parents were born in Punjab, the new Australian High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu, looks forward to her stint here to deepen the bilateral relations and put them on a higher trajectory. In an exclusive interview, the first to any newspaper in the country, Harinder Sidhu shares her vision with The Tribune

You are looked upon by many, especially in Punjab, as a great immigrant success story. What would you like to say to those who might want to emulate you?

I don't think there's a particular path. I think Punjabis have been extraordinarily successful overseas and I think it has to do more with having the right attitude. I went to Australia as a small child and grew up there, feeling very much a part of the country. I worked hard, studied hard — all those things that Punjabis I think do very, very well and was fortunate to be in this position to get to where I am. I don't think there's any recipe but just the attitude that Punjabis take when they go to other countries, which they adopt as their own and contribute to through their hard work. 

Do you feel a connection to your roots, to Punjab? 

Very much so. I wasn't born in India, so my connection is a little bit removed. But like all people who grow up in the Indian diaspora, I always had a strong sense of my Indian roots and my Punjabi roots. Punjabi was spoken at home.

Can you still speak Punjabi?

Very, very badly, much to my mother's disappointment. I was one of those kids whose parents would speak to them in Punjabi and I would reply in English. But I have a very good understanding of it and you do many of the things growing up, like going to the gurdwara and many of your friends are from the Indian community. But Punjabi-Australians like the Greek-Punjabis or Italy-Punjabis, go home and speak the language and eat our food.

What was your favourite Punjabi food or still is?

Gosh! I have this thing for saag and maaki ki roti and aloo parantha, though I don't know if it's a particular Punjabi thing but I love aloo parantha.

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How does Australia view India's candidature for membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group? 

With no equivocation at all, Australia has been very, very supportive of India joining the NSG. We think it is an absolutely good thing, we genuinely welcome India's interests in the NSG and in the other non-proliferation regimes too (Wassenar and Australia group).It demonstrates to us India's seriousness of intent of being a responsible nuclear actor, particularly in the  civil nuclear field. And we think India can make a solid contribution to the NSG.

How do you look at the Chinese position that if India is allowed into NSG, so should be Pakistan?

My view is this that the NSG membership should be open and that the NSG should consider the entry of individual countries on the basis of their merit. I think India has done an enormous amount of work in the last few years to demonstrate its merits to join the NSG and that is the basis of our support really. If any other country were to go through the same process and demonstrate the same level of merit, we would, of course, consider that. 

Did India reach out to Australia, to impress upon New Zealand to support India's NSG bid?

New Zealand is an independent and sovereign country and will make its own decisions. We have been very clear about our support for India in the NSG, we have been clear about that with everybody and we have spoken to New Zealand about our position. 

Australia has been very successful in dealing with racial attacks. India too has, of late, seen attacks on people of the African community here. Are there any lessons that India can learn from Australia in this context?

I don't want to preach to India. But one of the first things we did was to look at the facts and we didn't shy away from them. It was a law-and-order situation and it reflected on Australia's reputation. It was a combination of the criminal behaviour of some people and some vulnerable positions in which some of the Indian students were living in — in remote areas, away from cities and travelling alone late at night. Those were the sort of things that placed them at high risk. Once we recognised that, we galvanised our police forces. Every state police force in Australia now has a dedicated student liaison person. We got the police to reach out to the community much more. For example, we are making sure that universities help students find accommodation near the campus and students don't have to travel that far. 

Has the number of visas that Australia gives to Indian students gone down?

These incidents took place in 2008 and at that time there was a drop in visas. We have seen in the last five years or so, a fairly significant recovery in the numbers. As an example, in 2014 we issued 46,000 visas to Indian students, in 2015 it went upto 53,000 visas. I understand we have over 70,000 student applications this year. And we have been encouraging students to go to Australia. On July 1, we will be introducing a streamlined visa process for the students. It will be an online application and the process will be much simpler. 

India, Australia, US and Japan are together as strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific region. How enthusiastic is Australia about this quadrilateral partnership?

Australia has paid much more attention to the Indo-Pacific region in the last few years, much more attention to the region and much more attention to building security ties with India bilaterally. We had our first joint naval exercise last year, and we think the bilateral security relationship will go a long way. We have trilateral security discussions with India, Japan and Australia. And in all these bilaterals and trilateral summit, you can start to see where India, Australia, Japan and the US have common interests in the Indo- Pacific region so there's a clear logic in taking it towards that step. We have elections underway up in Australia and it would be up to future governments to decide. Right now, it would be difficult for me to be more specific, but there's a clear logic.

This growing cooperation does not include China? 

A quadrilateral grouping would be about broader Indo-Pacific security. It's not intended to exclude China. Australia and India are in many other forums, where China is included and the East Asia Summit is the key one. It's natural that there are sub-groupings and some have China in them, some don't, some have India in them and some don't. In terms of Australia's policy on China, we have what I would call a balanced policy on China. We have very strong economic ties with China. We also have quite a good security relationship with China but we have concerns about some of China's activities in the South China Sea at the moment. We are awaiting the outcome of the arbitration so, we are not making any judgments about sovereignty claims, but what we are saying is that whatever anyone else does in South China Sea or elsewhere has to be in line with international law. 

Would you say that the India-Australia civil nuclear deal was the turning point in the relationship between the two nations?

The deal and the arrangements under it have only just been settled. It does take a little bit of time now for commercial entities to start the trade and so I can devotedly say there's quite a bit of an interest by Australian uranium exporters to export to India.

There is a lot of tourism interest in Australia now from India. And it is no longer just cricket and curry.

Thanks heavens for that! Although let me say that cricket and curry are really important. As far tourism goes, last year the numbers were 233,000 visitor visas, that's gone up this year, and we are about to issue our 150,000th visa. We are half way through the year and I can see we are going to get higher than 233,000 this year. We are seeing more and more Indian tourists to Australia. I really welcome that there is so much interest in Australia now. 

Every High Commissioner comes with a vision of where they want to take the bilateral relationship. What do you envisage?

I am very lucky, I have arrived here on a kind of a wave and I do see the Australia India relationship taking off in a really big way. One of the drivers behind that, I think, is the growing Indian diaspora in Australia. For the time I am here I would like to see significant increase in the trade and investment and will be working to improve that on both sides. Second, I would like to see a deeper and broader relationship between the two countries.