Christchurch terror attacks

Undoubtedly, the event that shook New Zealand the most this year, was the Christchurch mosque shootings that took place in two mosques in Christchurch during the Friday prayers on March 15. In all, 51 people were killed and 49 injured in a lone gunman attack. He was later identified as Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old man from Grafton, Australia, who was described as a white supremacist and part of alt-right. The mosques were the Al Noor Mosque in Riccarton, and Linwood Islamic Centre in Linwood. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described it as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”, and established a royal commission of inquiry into its security agencies. Among the dead were people from India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Egypt, Fiji, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Pakistan and Palestine.

India-New Zealand relations

2019 was a moderate year for India-New Zealand relations, to put it graciously. The relationship got a major blow when India decided to not join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which had been negotiated over the past decade. While, not giving the Chinese manufacturing sector an easy access to Indian markets was the most-often stated reason, not opening the Indian diary sector to New Zealand dairy industry was another probable reason.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, met the second time at the UN General Assembly in New York in September. They had earlier met at the East Asia Summit held in Manila in November 2017. Both the PMs are yet to visit each other’s countries. Later India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement, “The leaders reviewed the bilateral relations and discussed steps to intensify political, economic, defence, security and people to people relations.” While, Ardern strongly condemned the Pulwama terror attacks, India supported the joint New Zealand-French initiative on Christchurch Call of Action, which aims at eliminating terrorists and violent extremist content online, the statement added.

PM Ardern also informed PM Modi about New Zealand’s new strategic paper ‘India 2022-Investing in the relationship’, which is a continuation of the NZ Inc India Strategy 2011.

Later, she was one of the speakers at a United Nations (UN) event to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. “The three aspects of Gandhi’s message carry significant weight – tolerance, equality and the sanctity of non-violence,” she said, further discussing the New Zealand Muslim community opening their doors for all Kiwis, in the aftermath of the March 15 attacks. “Their act of peace was a powerful and empowering one. In opening their doors they sowed the seeds of diversity, humanity, forgiveness and aroha. They broke a potential cycle of violence.”

Govt’s U-turn on visas

The issue that riled up the Indian community the most this year, was the changed guidelines by Immigration New Zealand (INZ), which were issued to front line staff that made it significantly harder for people to get visas to visit their partner. The Central Government later claimed that it has “fixed” the issue affecting how Immigration New Zealand has processed visa applications for culturally arranged marriages, which “will now see a consistent process applied which ensures people with legitimate arranged marriages can visit New Zealand while also preventing any rorting of the system”, it said in a release. These guidance no longer applies, said the Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway in a statement, adding, “Those who have a culturally arranged marriage to a New Zealand resident or citizen can apply for a culturally arranged visitor’s visa. Though this visa will have strict assessment criteria attached to it to ensure only legitimate arranged marriages are approved and to stop so called mail order brides and other potential rorts. Once the partner has been living in New Zealand with their spouse they can begin the process to apply for a partnership visa while proving the legitimate nature of their nuptials.”

Aside, the Government while opening the parents visa category [closed in 2016] said, “A single person wanting to sponsor one parent they will need to be earning twice the median income of New Zealand which is $104,000 a year.” The scheme will open in February 2020, capping the number at 1000 people.

Indian ride sharing app Ola increases its market share

This year had been good for Indian ridesharing app Ola, which was founded in 2011, by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati. It was running only in India up until 2017, after which it launched its service in Australia and the UK. It came to New Zealand in 2018, and this year became the second most widely used ridhsharing app in the country. By mid this year, it had clocked over half a million rides. Now, the company is expanding its footprint in New Zealand and plans to launch in 11 more locations, apart from the existing Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington. These inlcude Hamilton, Dunedin, Palmerston North, Tauranga, Queenstown, Nelson, New Plymouth, Napier, Rotorua, Taupō and Hastings. The company already has 9000 drivers in the three main centres it is operating now.

Kiwi-Indian achievers

• Sudima Hotels was crowned the Efficiency Champion at 2019 NZI Sustainable Business Network Award at a function held in November. The annual awards recognise the people and businesses leading the change to a more sustainable New Zealand. Notably, early this year, the chain of hotels, had won three New Zealand Tourism Awards, including the Supreme Tourism Award, the biggest in the New Zealand tourism industry, as well as the Environmental Award and the Employer of Choice Award.

• In recognition of the contributions Punjabi diaspora has made the world over, the State Government of Punjab has honoured three Kiwi-Indians – National Party MPs Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi and Parmjeet Parmar, and Honorary Consul of India in Auckland Bhav Dillon, as part of commemoration of the 550th birth anniversary (Prakash Parv) of the first guru and Sikkhism founder, Guru Nanak.

• Sid and Chand Sahrawat, a Kiwi-Indian couple from Chandigarh and Pune, who owns Sidart, won the Restaurant of the Year title at the Cuisine Good Food Awards announced last month. In 2018, Sidart, along with the second restaurant they opened in 2014, Cassia, won the supreme award and runner-up for Restaurant of the Year, at Metro Restaurant of the Year Awards. Sid was also awarded the Lewisham Foundation’s Outstanding Restaurateur for both Sidart and Cassia this year.

• New Zealand international, Sarpreet Singh, became the first player of Indian origin to play in German league, Bundesliga, when he replaced the Philippe Coutinho, in the final eight minutes of Bayern Munich’s match against Werder Bremen in December. Singh, who has been among the reserve players at the German football giant Bayern Munich till now, had been promoted to train with the club’s first team until the winter break.

• Adithya Ashok, the under-19 leg-spinning wizard, was included in the just announced 15-strong squad for the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa early next year. His selection came after an impressive performance [12 wickets] in the just-concluded NZC National Men’s Under 19 Tournament, with New Zealand Cricket (NZC) calling him “one of the stars of this year’s tournament”.

• Abhinav Manota, a Kiwi-Indian who immigrated to New Zealand in 2014 from Punjab, successfully defended his national badminton title in Wellington this year, by defeating North Harbour’s Dylan Soedjasa in straight games. Manota also won the Oceania singles title in February, and with New Zealand citizenship secured, is looking to represent the country in Olympics this year. For this, he had set up a givealittle page in May this year. (Pic credits: Badminton New Zealand)

• First-ever Sikh Games in New Zealand

  With over 25 thousand people attending the two-day event – enjoying over 30 plus cultural performances – held in early december, the first-ever New Zealand Sikh Games were a roaring success. In all, over 125 teams participated in over 14 disciples, with about 20 teams coming from overseas, mainly from Australia.

  (Pic Credits: Harry’s DSLR)

-Gaurav Sharma