The other day, I was speaking with my former colleague and friend, Neeraj Nanda, who is now settled in Melbourne, where he runs South Asia Times (SAT). We worked together in the early 1980s at Link Newsweekly, published from Link House in Delhi. Before that, we were active together in the All-India Students Federation (AISF), India's oldest student organisation.
Although SAT was formerly a tabloid periodical, it is now an online platform focusing on issues that interest Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in Australia. While we lost touch for quite some time, Nanda and I have reconnected over the last ten years. He regularly calls me to share insights on Australian politics and discuss their implications for India.
Nanda is an unassuming, happy-go-lucky person who stays in touch with our old AISF friends even more than I do—I often envy his energy and capacity for connection, especially since we are both 73. During our recent conversation, he told me that large demonstrations—significant by Australian standards—had taken place in several cities, including Melbourne and Sydney. The Indian diaspora gathered to support what the termed the Indian "cockroaches" protesting against the alleged police clampdown on youth leaders and cadres in Delhi. They viewed these actions as an attack on democracy and the Indian Constitution.
“I haven’t seen such a large gathering of the Indian-origin diaspora across the country against the current Modi government in recent times,” Nanda, who is in Australia for about three decades, told me.
Curious about the logistics, I asked if organizers needed permission to hold such protests in Australia. “No permission is required,” he explained. “People can gather in free spaces near major government buildings without any hassle. If organizers anticipate any issues, they can simply inform the police.”
This freedom to assemble was put to the test recently in Melbourne, and the outcome was quite revealing. Nanda shared a SAT story titled "Cops foil far-right disruption of Melbourne Indian rally," which highlighted how authorities handled a tense situation that would likely have turned violent elsewhere.
According to the report, a peaceful gathering outside the Victorian Parliament in Melbourne faced an attempted disruption by a localized far-right group. But unlike the passive policing we often witness in India, Victoria Police intervened rapidly. They separated the agitators from the demonstrators, allowing the rally to proceed safely.
Nanda recounted how the two groups were kept apart. “The cops were summoned. They separated the two groups, telling them to continue their demonstrations separately, which they did. Both continued peacefully, keeping a safe distance from each other,” he said, wondering aloud why this couldn’t happen in India, where right-wing groups have been allowed to attack Gen Z protesters while police stood by as onlookers.
The SAT report noted that the crowd in Melbourne responded to the tension with resilience. Rather than being intimidated, they continued their demonstration through poetry, music, and shared speeches. Organizers emphasized that the attempt to disrupt the rally only reinforced the need for solidarity.
Nanda forwarded me another SAT story, along with photographs he had taken, to illustrate the broader support Indian Gen Z received across Australian cities. The report stated that synchronized vigils were also held in Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide. These coordinated demonstrations explicitly supported India’s Gen Z protesters, who are challenging alleged electoral manipulation and demanding transparency from electoral institutions in their home country.
The rallies were backed by a coalition of prominent diaspora advocacy groups, including The Humanism Project, Hindus for Human Rights Australia, and the Periyar Ambedkar Thought Circle Australia (PATCA), among others.
Quoting the organizers, SAT reported that they “emphasized that living abroad does not disconnect the diaspora from the political realities unfolding in India. Attendees called for the immediate protection of peaceful protesters, the release of arbitrary detainees, and swift, transparent investigations into reported electoral irregularities.”
“For those of us in the diaspora, distance does not diminish our concern or our responsibility to speak out,” a spokesperson for The Humanism Project was quoted as saying. “We stand with this generation’s demand for free and fair elections, accountable institutions, and the freedom to dissent.”
Nandini Sen Mehra of Hindus for Human Rights Australia emphasized the need to bridge ideological divides. “Whether in Australia or India, there are far-right forces pushing towards authoritarianism, the loss of human rights, and democratic freedoms. The resistance must come from each one of us.”
Speakers at the rallies framed the current unrest in India “not as an isolated incident, but as a critical chapter in an accelerating global wave of youth-led political movements.” A representative from the Socialist Alliance, addressing the Sydney crowd, stated, “This movement happening in India at the moment is a massive inspiration to anyone who wants to see a better future. We’ve seen huge resistance from students in France. We’ve also seen Gen Z youth uprisings in Nepal and Bangladesh—it’s sparking hope and inspiration around the world.”
From within India, youth leaders recognized the profound impact of international backing. Yashveer Singh, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party in Jharkhand, sent a message of cross-continental defiance: “From Jharkhand to Melbourne, Gen Z’s message is clear: we’re not fighting against India, we’re fighting for the India our Constitution promises every citizen.”
As the vigils concluded, leaders reminded attendees that the foundational architecture of modern India relies heavily on the right to peaceful opposition. Deepak Joshi of The Humanism Project noted that the fight for a fair electoral system and the fight against the rise of the far-right are fundamentally the same fight for dignity, democracy, and the right to belong.
Bringing historical context to the demonstrations, Devibala Palanivel, President of the Periyar Ambedkar Thought Circle Australia (PATCA), invoked the philosophies of India’s foundational social reformers. “Periyar and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar taught us that democracy demands more than elections—it requires equality, accountability, and the freedom to question power... Peaceful dissent is not a threat to democracy; it is its lifeblood.”
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