Much fanfare was given to the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Australia this week. The visit culminated in a massive "Melbourne Meets Modi" community rally at Marvel Stadium that drew tens of thousands of Indian/Australian Modi supporters. Nuclear armed India with the worlds largest population 1.47 billion, (mean age 28, Australia 39), like China is a rapidly growing economic and military power in our region, New Delhi is not that much further from Canberra than Beijing. About one million Indian born people live in Australia, people of Indian descent make up our largest foreign-born community and overseas diaspora, they also make up our largest source of immigrants.

Just as we are rightly concerned about the rise of Chinese power and influence in our region, should we also be concerned by the rise of India? Australia and India through a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, presently share a friendly relationship, but that may not always be the case, as my Tamil/Indian friend said to me recently; "When we protested back home, the police beat us with sticks."