Sam Varghese
Sam Varghese is an Australian of Indian origin who has lived in the country for nearly 28 years. He has worked as a journalist for more than 40 years and was until recently writing for the tech website iTWire. He has worked for the Deccan Herald and Indian Express in India, Khaleej Times in the UAE and Daily Commercial News (now defunct) and The Age in Australia.
Recent articles by Sam Varghese
14 March 2025
Palestinian speech and the trials of Mark Dreyfus
“The label Zionist is used, not in any way, accurately. When critics use that word, they actually mean Jew. They’re not really saying Zionist, they’re saying Jew because they know that they cannot say Jew, so they say Zionist or words [such as] Zeo or Zio.” –Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, October 2024
3 March 2025
Levy has said what needs to be said
I agreed with everything Daniel Levy says: that Bob Marley's song that the people of the world are one love, one heart is a very beautiful way of saying we are all people. We are all born equal. Also since Netanyahu has said he intends to resume the war, and the West Bank is being ethnically cleansed, it is imperative that countries of goodwill send peace-keeping forces under the auspices of the United Nations to the occupied Palestinian Territory to ensure the Palestinian people aren't erased, The reconstruction of Gaza and the resumption of vital services should take place...
17 January 2025
Joe Biden’s legacy? The Palestinian genocide
American presidents are big on talking about what they believe to be their legacy, even if there is no substance to the claims they make. With Joe Biden, it is crystal clear what he can claim as his legacy: the genocide that has resulted in close to 70,000 Palestinian lives being snuffed out.
20 December 2024
Caste divisions among Indian diaspora remain in Australia
Australian politicians’ inability to understand the complexity of the Indian diaspora is, in part, fostering division among these migrants, the Guardian Australia claims in analysis published on Sunday (December 8).
6 December 2024
Google faces verdicts from anti-trust trials as Trump term approaches
Search behemoth Google is under pressure in the US after three anti-trust trials concluded, with one of the remedies proposed being a call for it to be forced to sell off its web browser, Chrome, an app that dominates the browser space.
16 October 2024
Modi’s party suffers another setback in Kashmir polls
It is unlikely that even the biggest supporter of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected his BJP party to win the recent election in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) after the reverse Modi suffered in the national elections held earlier in the year.
21 September 2024
Australian film-maker refused entry into India
Australian film-maker David Bradbury has been refused entry into India, after flying into Chennai from Bangkok on 10 September with his two children, aiming to take a holiday.
10 July 2024
The Age hits a low pursuing discredited narratives about Oct. 7 attack
Melbourne tabloid The Age has done its already sagging reputation no favours by running, as an exclusive, an article that claims to detail what it calls the “denial and disinformation facing October 7 survivors” – Israelis who were attacked by Hamas – with the centrepiece of the article being an interview with an Israeli reservist – who was interviewed twice in 2023.
3 July 2024
Australia’s obsession with the US is getting out of hand
Australia's obsession with every little political twist or swing in the US seems to grow with each day, with the latest event to gain saturation coverage being the first presidential debate of the current American political cycle.
27 June 2024
Big media firms trying to get government to cover Facebook money
Australia's mainstream media groups are trying to pressure the government in order to obtain funding to cover the $70 million that was provided by Facebook in a deal in 2021 and which the social media group has said it will not renew when the deal lapses later this year.
7 June 2024
The Greens correctly get up the noses of Labor, Coalition over Gaza
The Greens, a party with whom Labor may well have to negotiate with to form government after the next election, have the knack of getting up the noses of both Labor and the Coalition by accusing both major parties of doing little or nothing to effect an end to the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, senseless killing that has been going on in the name of self-defence since October 7.
6 June 2024
Modi’s bubble bursts, but he still gets a third term
After predicting confidently that it would win more than 400 seats in Indian national elections, the results of which have just been declared, Narendra Modi's BJP and its allies have received something of a shock, with indications being that the alliance would win around 290 seats in all.
30 May 2024
Jewish extremists in West Bank pose biggest threat to Israel: report
When it comes to the security of Israel, it is uncommon to publicly hear of any threat facing the country other than that which emanates from either its Arab neighbours or else Iran.
20 May 2024
When it comes to Ukraine, Australia's media is one-eyed
It is curious that though the Russia-Ukraine conflict is now in its third year, Australian audiences have been only given one side of the picture: that of Ukraine and its Western backers.
13 May 2024
WikiLeaks founder's fate will be known in just 7 days
In just 7 days, a British court will decide whether to extradite WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange to the US where he will face trial on espionage charges.
9 May 2024
China dropped a flare near an Aussie copter in its EEZ. What's wrong with that?
Patriotism, they say, is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Judged that way, there seem to be a large number of scoundrels around within the Australia media and also the Canberra political elite.
8 May 2024
ASPI caught spreading misinformation about open-source software
It's not often that you find someone writing about open source software and not bothering to make mention of the licences being used. But that's precisely what Albert Zhang of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a lobby group for big tech and foreign agencies, has done.
7 May 2024
Three Indians held in Canada over murder of Sikh activist Nijjar
The stars do not exactly seem to be aligning for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he bids for a third term in office with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police charging three Indians living in Edmonton with the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June last year.
2 May 2024
Indian spies expelled from Australia in 2020
India, regarded as a friendly nation by Australia, operated what is being called a “nest of spies” in this country, the ABC reports, adding that the group was kicked out in 2020 after the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation discovered what they were up to.
27 April 2024
If Avani Dias had been white, would Murdoch media have ignored her India ban?
Strange but true. A reporter from the state-owned broadcaster in Australia was booted out by India, purportedly the biggest democracy in the world, and the Murdoch media in Australia has ignored it in toto.
25 April 2024
ASPI chief takes exception to being singled out by China
The director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a lobby group for big tech and foreign agencies, claims that China's alleged targeting of the agency should be of concern to all Australians.
24 April 2024
World’s biggest democracy expels ABC journalist but little noise in Australia
One wonders how the Australian mainstream media will react to the news that India, the so-called biggest democracy in the world, has thrown out ABC correspondent Avani Dias from the country.
17 April 2024
Modi will win again. But India may well end up the loser
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to win a third consecutive term in office in general elections in which voting begins on April 19 and runs over seven days.
3 April 2024
India blocks ABC reports on Sikh separatism from YouTube
India has ordered YouTube to take down two ABC reports on Sikh separatism and not allow them to be viewed within the country, a demand with which Google, the owner of YouTube, has complied.
26 January 2024
Modi set to remake India as a Hindu nation
One of the sure bets this year is for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to win a third term in federal elections which are scheduled to take place in the first half of 2024.
30 December 2023
India bids to guard its reputation as elections loom
Increasingly, organs of the state are used to harass critics of the government.
21 September 2023
The West attempts to downplay India assassination allegations
India appears to have taken a leaf out of Saudi Arabia's book in dealing with its critics abroad, with the alleged killing by Indian agents of a prominent Khalistan activist in Canada recently.
17 August 2023
Why is Australia afraid to call out rights violations in India?
Last month, news emerged that two Indian women belonging to the minority Kuki tribe in Manipur had been raped and then paraded naked in public.
2 November 2022
With nuke-capable B-52s coming, Albanese is now the new Deputy Sheriff for the US
Former Liberal prime minister John Howard used to be often contemptuously referred to as the deputy sheriff for the US in the Pacific region when George W. Bush was in power.