Rupert Murdoch-owned 'The Australian' publishes cartoon showing Indians eating solar panels

MELBOURNE: A cartoon published in the Rupert Murdoch-owned `The Australian' on Monday depicted Indians as starving and eating solar panels, drawing rebuke with many condemning it as racist. The cartoon was in response to the Paris climate conference.

India had bargained hard on behalf of developing countries and demanded that developed countries take on more responsibility and provide financial support to developing nations so that they could make a switch to green technology . India also mooted the International Solar Alliance initiative which was launched during the Paris conference.

The cartoon sparked furore in the social media and academic circles. Amanda Wise, an associate professor of sociology at Macquarie University , said in her view the cartoon was shocking and would be unacceptable in the UK, the US or Canada.

“This cartoon is unequivocally racist and draws on very base stereotypes of third world, underdeveloped people who don't know what to do with technology ,“ Wise told Guardian Australia.

“India is the technology centre of the world right now and has some of the most high-tech industries on the planet in that part of the world. The underlying message is that people in developing countries don't need all these technologies to do with climate change -they need food,“ she said.