Author: Paritosh Parasher
Publication: India Abroad
Date: March 11, 2001
The Hindu community in Australia's
premier harbor city is up in arms after office-bearers of a leading trade
union stormed the Sri Venkateswara Temple here, taking eight construction
workers with them on the charge they were being underpaid and exploited.
The Hindu Council of Australia will
hold a protest rally on March 25 against the move of the left-wing Construction
Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) to storm the temple located in
Helensburg in the Illawara region a fortnight ago.
The CFMEU has alleged that the workers
were grossly underpaid, were living in subhuman conditions and were confined
to the temple premises.
The head of the temple management
committee, Perumal Janarthan, has, however, not only denied the charges
but has also blamed the trade union of being insensitive to Hinduism.
The protesters would converge near the Sydney Town Hall and a march would
proceed to the Parliament House from there.
"We have made it clear to them that
we are not constructing a five star hotel to earn profits in the future
but a Hindu temple and the workers are not here to earn wages but to perform
their religious duties as volunteers," Janarthan told IANS.
The workers were living, according
to Janarthan, as per the religious tenets followed by those involved in
temple construction. They were, he said, provided air- conditioned
cabins along with other facilities.
"The workers are not supposed to
eat meat, smoke, drink alcohol or engage in sexual intercourse during the
construction period as it is considered to be a religious duty in India
to participate in the construction of a temple as a volunteer," Janarthan
said.
"We have been spending about A$20,000
on each worker every year as we provide them with not only meals, clothes,
accommodation, but also pay them airfares and other expenses so that they
could visit their families in India," he said.
"The charge that they were confined
to the temple premises is foolish, to say the least, as the shop-owners
in the area know them more than any member of the temple committee.
The boys (workers) were themselves making all the purchases of building
materials and groceries from the shops," Janarthan said.
The workers, who are believed to
have been taken to the nearby town of Wollongong by CFMEU, are said to
be handling their bank accounts themselves and, according to Janarthan,
also had the keys to the temple gates.
The matter has degenerated into
a political war of words as the union, affiliated to the opposition Labor
Party, has blamed the ruling Liberals for being responsible for the alleged
exploitation of the temple workers, who are here on temporary work visas.
The CFMEU also organized a protest
rally over the issue outside the Sydney office of the Australian Immigration
Minister Philip Ruddock Friday. The union has also filed a
claim for back pay for the workers in a Sydney court the same day.
On his part, Ruddock has blamed CFMEU of shielding illegal immigrants and
of providing them work at the cost of Australian workers.
The issue has been covered widely
by the local media and has led to outraged feelings not only in the wider
Australian community but also among expatriate Hindus. Sydney
Hindu community leaders are angry at the "total lack of sensitivity" shown
by the union with regard to the sanctity of the temple.
"We decided to hold our protest
march so that we could register our disgust at the way union members desecrated
the temple," A. Balasubramaniam, chairman of the Hindu Council of Australia,
told IANS.
"If the union thought that there
was any issue which needed immediate redress they should have brought it
up with the temple management in a normal, civilized manner instead of
barging into the temple premises in five-six cars as if they were on a
raid. They parked the cars in such a manner that it prevented
the devotees from accessing the temple for a long time," Balasubramaniam
said.
"I would definitely participate
in the protest march with my family as the union seems to have gone overboard
while handling this issue and it is time to make it clear that in this
multicultural society, all religions should be treated with equal respect,"
said Sanjay Dulloo, a former editor and publisher of a Sydney Indian community
newspaper.
His fellow journalist and a local
community leader Rekha Bhatta also echoed the same sentiments as she said:
"The violation of the temple sanctity is totally unacceptable and outrageous
for all the Indian community members and something should be done to prevent
the repetition of such incidents in the future."
