Jacinta Nampijinpa campaigning against Voice vote
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 22: At a time when there is a growing demand for caste census to gain data on its side for carving out benefits and entitlements in India, Australian rejection of the bid to slot aboriginals as one unit may hold lesson for the Indian politicians. Australia rejected the motion by a decisive 61 per cent to carve out a group for aboriginals, an idea that is seen to have the backing of Australian Prime Minister Albanese Anthony.
The outcome of the vote on ‘Voice’ has stunned commentators across the world. The Left is more livid at the rejection, arguing that it amounts to a “missed opportunity” to give voice to the aboriginals. The rejection is seen to be more stunning because the people who were rooting for a segregated identity for aboriginals on the plank that it will correct historical wrongs and help them tide over the sense of being disadvantaged including influencers – rock stars, musicians, politicians, and several icons from diverse world.
Ironically, the campaign to defeat the move was led by one from within the aboriginals – Jacinta Nampijinpa, an Australian senator and leading politician. She ambushed the coordinated campaign of powerful groups by calling out the move racist. “Make no mistake this referendum is elite inner city vs the bush! Vulnerable Aboriginal Australia yet again being exploited for an elitist agenda,” she stated in a post on X in the run up to the October 14 vote.
Arguing that the Australian vote is a masterclass in how to respond to identity politics, Fraser Nelson wrote in The Telegraph, a UK daily: “What makes the referendum fascinating was that, with no one saying how the Voice would actually work, debate focused on the principles.” Quoting from Yascha Mounk’s book ‘The Identity Trap’, Nelson attributed the rise of identity politics to the “failure of Marxism and the need for new social narrative as a strand of the Left became disillusioned with Martin Luther King’s dream of people being defined not by the colour of the skin but the content of their character…which led to celebration of black month history, works slotted as tribes: black or white, gay or straight, cis or trans”.
While the event has so far missed commentaries in India, the Left-leaning The Hindu in its Editorial said that the rejection vote was a “missed opportunity for Australia”. What possibly helped the arguments of the likes of Nampijinpa was the fact that the aboriginals are fairly represented in elected bodies against their 4.5 per cent population, while the group cannot be practically clubbed into one unit for speaking not less than 300 languages while being aspirational.
India certainly is without Nampijinpa who could have raised the voices of the tribal groups in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand who remain at almost the same socio-economic conditions while the ‘sacrosanct’ reservation for them is pocketed by the tribes of the Northeast and Rajasthan, while the same applies for the other backward castes (OBCs).
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