Thread by @BiancaMinnie4

India Sports Club president Raj Natarajan, who formed the club in Sydney 19 years ago, said bringing cricket stars home while thousands of Australians were unable to return would not be well received by the Indian-Australian community. 1/
smh.com.au/sport/cricket/…

2/ Australians involved in the IPL- 11 coaches, including Ricky Pointing, support staff, commentators & umpires - chose to stay in India. Cricket Australia is considering facilitating a charter flight to bring them home.

3/ Yet more than 9000 Australian (non IPL cricket) citizens are believed to be trapped in India. Sean Kelly's piece in the SMH is relevant.
smh.com.au/national/scott…

4/ Morrison's identity, a man from the 'burbs, 'the Shire', footy-loving - his identity used as a substitute for beliefs & policies. In relation to potential prison for #IndiaFightsCOVID19 @mrseankelly asks "Why India?"

5/ "The racial element is hard to ignore". Kelly says he was shocked, initially, by the #IndiaFlightBan. But once the government announced the accompanying prison terms, the shock, for me, wore off.
(I had a similar reaction, it seemed strangely unsurprising.)

6/ "Banning citizens from returning to Australia sounded new – but imprisoning desperate people for years at a time for the supposed crime of fleeing desperate circumstances?... It is, of course, the mainstay of our refugee policy".

7/ What does this say about Australians broadly? We know Morrison's 'miracle win' was helped in no small measure by a huge advertising campaign by Clive Palmer, but still plenty of Australians have approved a this hollow man - who stopped the boats, but sold himself as every man.

8/ Many Australians bought what #ScottyFromMarketing was selling, and still do. He fed into the view of 'every man' that a group of Australians believe is how an Australian 'every man' looks & behaves.
#auspol

9/ So, going back to Australians involved in the IPL, those Australian 'stars' will also be given COVID-19 jabs next week to continue with the tournament, despite a country-wide shortage of vaccines in India.
I wonder how they feel about this?

10/ How will Australians reconcile cricketers, "celebrated as big stars" who went to India "to further their own financial fortunes" (Natarajan), receiving vaccines, having access to full PPE, &being able to return to Australia on a charter flight?

11/ Will Australians just accept that their lives appear to be valued more highly? Natarajan says his brother & mother are still there & are doing it very tough. There does seem to be a different rule for the celebrities.

12/ Natarajan thinks one rule for Australian Indians & something very different for celebrity cricketers wouldn’t wash well with an ordinary Australian citizen.
I hope so & that we scream this out very loudly.#auspol

13/13 Scott Morrison is #ScottyFromMarketing & #ScottyFromPhotoOps - largely a white middle-aged shell marketed as every man but it seems also with a hard centre of prosperity gospel & a willingness to exclude Australians to don't quite fit the image he's marketing. #auspol