There is a line in the sand that one cannot cross; a self-imposed rule that should prevent one from making common cause with our enemies to settle scores with a domestic opponent.
There is no dearth of anti-India actors on the international stage including countries inimical to India and ideologically motivated private individuals alike—all of whom are constantly striving to undermine India; a campaign that has acquired a strong sense of urgency with a nationalist government at the helm in India and the possibility that Narendra Modi may return to power in 2024.Disturbingly, this nefarious exercise is being willingly aided by some Indians themselves. The New York Times investigative report (A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul. 5 August 2023) that exposes an international web of covert Chinese activities to further its agendaand interests funded by Neville Roy Singham is a clear example of this.
Neville Roy Singham is aUS millionaire who has been bank rolling “leftist” causes and media outlets across the world, apparently at the behest of China to defend that country’s position and widen its scope of influence. At least one Indian expatriate, Vijay Prashad, and one Indian media agency,Newsclick, appear to be, knowingly or otherwise, a part of this unholy global nexus that targets India as well.
Vijay Prashad is a US-based activist, who is a well-known Modi-baiter and an inveterate opponent of the BJP; he also happens to be the Communist Marxist leader Brinda Karat’s nephew. He regularly writes columns for Al Jazeera and Frontline (published by the Hindu) and is in a position to influence the Indian public. According to the New York Times, Vijay Prashad’s Massachusetts-based think-tank Tricontinental has been the recipient of funding from Neville Roy Singham.
The other India connection involves the media website Newsclick. The New York Times report indicates that “Mr. Singham’s network financed a news site, Newsclick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points.”
Long before the New York Times expose, Newsclick was the focus of an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate in India in 2021.
The ED investigation revealed the following:
Newsclick had received questionable foreign funding to the tune of Rs 38 crores, part of which was traced to a shell company based in the US, namely Worldwide Media Holdings, a Delaware Limited Liability company with links to Singham.
Newsclickallegedly disbursed significant amounts of money to activists who routinely wrote against the Indian government. This list is impressive and reads like a Who’s Who of the anti-Modi and anti-BJP brigade, includingJaved Anand, husband of Teesta Setalvad (Rs 12.61 lakh), Tamara, daughter of Teesta Setalvad (Rs 10.93 lakh), Gautam Navlakha (Rs 20.53 lakh) and P. Guha-Thakurta (Rs 40 lakh).
The investigation also found email exchanges between PrabirPurkayastha (Director of Newsclick), Vijay Prasad, the CPM leader Prakash Karat and Neville Roy Singham.
Elements in the Congress Party, inadvertently or otherwise have made common cause with these anti-India forces in its bid to dislodge the current government. In response to the ED raid on Newsclick in 2021, RandeepSurjewala a spokesman of the Congress Party tweeted, “Subjugate, suppress and stifle is the only mantra of Modi government as proved by ED raids on Newsclick today.”
Rahul Gandhi’s recent trip to the USA was reported to have been organised by dubious organisations with alleged questionable links; at least one organisation or individual appears allegedly to have been funded by George Soros.
Rahul Gandhi failed to adhere to the national dharma: not to defame India or Indians on foreign shores—a principle that BJP leaders such as L.K. Advani and A.B. Vajpayee practised scrupulously (I had the opportunity to hear these leaders on several occasions when they visited the United States).
In contrast, Rahul Gandhi’s talks abroad have been a tirade of accusations. During a speech in Cambridge. UK he painted a dystopian picture of democracy in India; he remarked: “Everybody knows and it’s been in the news a lot that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. I am an Opposition leader in India, we are navigating that (Opposition) space. The institutional framework which is required for a democracy—Parliament, free press, the judiciary, just the idea of mobilization, moving around—all are getting constrained. So, we are facing an attack on the basic structure of Indian democracy.” Given his years in the political arena, more was expected of Rahul Gandhi.
The case of Indians, many settled abroad, colluding with dubious organisations with links to our enemies such as Pakistan and China is not a new phenomenon. The case of Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai from a decade ago comes to my mind.
Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai is a US-based Kashmiri, who was the Director of the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), an organisation supposedly fighting for self-determination for Kashmiris. Several prominent Indians were a part of the KAC’s numerous seminars in the US: former Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Kuldip Nayyar, Justice Rajinder Sachar, anthropologist AnganaChatterji and Gautam Navlakha to name a few.
In 2011, Fai was convicted for receiving funds from the ISI The FBI website states: “Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, 62, a U.S. citizen and resident of Fairfax, Va., pleaded guilty today to conspiracy and tax violations in connection with a decades-long scheme to conceal the transfer of at least $3.5 million from the government of Pakistan to fund his lobbying efforts in America related to Kashmir… Fai served as the director of the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), a non-governmental organisation in Washington, D.C., that held itself out to be run by Kashmiris, financed by Americans and dedicated to raising the level of knowledge in the United States about the struggle of the Kashmiri people for self-determination. But according to court documents, the KAC was secretly funded by officials employed by the government of Pakistan, including the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI).”
Many of the Indian attendees to the KAC seminars feigned ignorance of Fai’s connections. However, when the same name (Gautam Navlakha) appears again and again in similar meetings,it is a hard sell to many.
I have always refrained from disparaging those with differing views as anti-national. But these events are forcing me to change my stance.
Dissent is the essence of democracy and any form of dissent is acceptable as long it is not violent and is expressed in the right forum. But there is a line in the sand that one cannot cross; a self-imposed rule that should prevent one from making common cause with our enemies to settle scores with a domestic opponent; a deep-set conviction that India’s image and integrity is above all self-interest, however pressing it may be.
When you flout these principles, I have to call you anti-national.