Crackdown on illegal immigrants worries and angers Muslims

Doesn't look like LA, does it. Well, it's not. It's Gurugram, an upscale suburb just outside Delhi, India. But, come to think of it, there are similarities with the City of the Angels. Gleaming SUVs, futuristic skyscrapers and neat apartments stand in stark contrast to nearby homeless encampments and feces-strewn streets.

Unlike the slums of LA, those of Gurugram are inhabited by people who aren't living off food stamps and the proceeds of dealing drugs, but working! They are migrant workers -- mostly domestic helpers, garbage-pickers and daily-wage workers. Last month, the Indian version of ICE rounded up hundreds of them, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims from India's West Bengal state.

The mass arrests are part of a "verification" drive targeting illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. The suspects were detained and kept at "holding centres" (not to be confused with "concentration camps") where they were asked to provide documents to prove their citizenship. 

Many allege they were beaten and mistreated by police during the process. Ather Ali Sheikh told the BBC, "I had my voter and national ID cards, but they told me they were fake. I spent six days not knowing my fate before I was finally released." How very misfortunate for him!

Hundreds of migrant workers have fled overnight, abandoning jobs, homes and, in some cases, even families in their haste to escape. "I still don't understand why they suddenly came after me," Mr Sheikh said. Behind him, his wife hurriedly packed their belongings - torn clothes, old utensils and school books - into flimsy boxes. "Was it because of my language, my religion or because I am poor? Why weren't the rich Bengali residents held up?" 

Police in Gurugram deny targeting any particular community. "Neither religion nor class has anything to do with the drive," spokesthingy Sandeep Kumar told the Beeb. He added that out of the 250 people picked up, only 10 have been identified as illegal migrants and will actually be deported. "Everyone else was released. No one was mistreated at the centres. We have been completely fair and objective." 

Crackdowns on alleged illegal immigrants from Muslim-majority Bangladesh are not new in India. The countries are divided by a porous 2500-mile-long border, which, ever since the partition of India, has seen waves of movement of people on both sides. But these efforts seem to have intensified under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Deportations are also under way in Delhi, where some 700 people were picked up and flown out to border states in the last six months. This has had a chilling impact on the marginalised community. In Gurugram, a sense of shock prevailed over their dust-blanketed colonies. "For years, we have cleaned and collected their garbage. Now we are being treated like it ourselves," said Rauna Bibi, a domestic worker.

The police say the detentions in Gurugram were made on the basis of strong preliminary evidence. You'll notice that the lady in the photo isn't so poor that she can't afford a phone with which to take a selfie. But the phone may have been her undoing. "We checked their phones," said the same police flak-catcher, "and found suspicious contacts from Bangladesh. Some of them also failed to answer questions about their ancestry during interrogation."

Suhas Chakma, a non-Muslim human rights worker, denies that the crackdown is motivated by Islamophobia. "The arrest of the Muslims appears to be more as they constitute about 95% of Bangladesh's population," he explained. But, he added, for a country that has seen an influx of refugees for decades, India does need a wider refugee law to address many of these complex issues.

"A wider refugee law." Right. Like that of... where??? Let it not be said that Prime Minister Modi is looking to President Trump for inspiration -- although he probably is. Let us instead wonder how much longer the prime ministers of Britain and Canada can get away with not taking similar measures before what's left of their countries' white  populace rise up in arms.

Liberals boot Indo-Canadian MP from leadership race

The CBC -- Canada's answer to Pravda -- reports today that Nepean MP Chandra Arya, featured in this video on WWW, says he's been informed by the Liberal Party of Canada that he won't be allowed to run in the leadership contest to replace Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface. 

In a statement posted to "X", Mr Arya said "While I await their official communication, I am carefully considering my next steps. This decision raises significant questions about the legitimacy of the leadership race and, by extension, the legitimacy of the next prime minister of Canada." 

Mr Arya does not say, nor does the Gliberal Party, whyfor his entry into the race to the bottom weas denied. Surely it has nothing to dfo with his vow to dump the monarchy if elected, or his statement that he doesn't speak French and doesn't believe it will matter to French-speaking Canadians.

More likely, the reason is that Mr Arya is just a bit too Indian (turbans, not feathers) even for the Liberals. In 2023, he sponsored a petition calling on the Liberals to reconsider plans to introduce a foreign agent registry in response to serious allegations of foreign interference in Canadian politics. The registry legislation has since passed, but it's not yet up and running. 

Mr Arya's ties to India have raised eyebrows amid worsening diplomatic relations. Last summer, he travelled to India and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A statement from Global Affairs Canada at the time said Arya "travelled to India on his own initiative and was not representing the Government of Canada."

Mr Arya's premature ejection leaves one other Indo-Canadian MP in the race, viz. Ruby "Slippers" Dhalla, mentioned in "Mark Carney explains why he wants to lead the Liberal Party of Canada", WWW 24/1/25. She is, of course, the dark horse. [Couldn't resist it, eh. Ed.] Adjust your betting accordingly.

One-worlders quake with fear as nationalists win elections everywhere

George Soros, his puppets and minions, are much disturbed this week by results (actual and anticipated) of elections in India, Australia and the European Union. Around the world, nationalism -- not "white nationalism", but nationalism pure and simple -- is on the rise, along with anti-immigrant backlash and pushback against the globalists' one world, "new world order" agenda.

In India, the world's largest democracy (TM), exit polls suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on course to win the general election which has been in progress for the last two months. The official results will be announced on Thursday, but expectations are that the BJP will emerge even stronger than after its 2014 landslide, with a majority in the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) a possibility.

Why does this bother the gliberals? Who cares what happens in India? To find the answer, look up "Hindutva" in the dictionary. It means "Hinduness", thus "Hindu nationalism", not "Indian nationalism". (There can be no such thing as "nationalism" in a state with such a diversity of languages, races and religions!) For Mr Modi and his people (Walt uses the term advisedly) it's not "India first!" but "HINDUS first!", to the exclusion of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and even Sikhs. The spectre of more sectarian strife, and even another shooting war with Muslim Pakistan, looms. The prospects for peaceful coexistence in south Asia are just about nil.

Meanwhile, a couple of thousand miles to the southeast, Australia's ruling conservative coalition won a "miracle" victory in last week's general election, stunning Antipodean pollsters, the (((controlled media))) and the opposition Labour party, which, like Hellery Clinton's Democrats, had been seen as certain to win. Apparently Aussie voters didn't buy into Labour's progressive plans to fight climate change and "inequality".

And there was the immigration issue, which proved to be a ballot question for the "quiet Australians" who fear being called "racist" but fear even more Labour's proposed "humanitarian" relaxation of strict border controls which have kept boatloads of bogus refugees on islands off the Australian coast. The Financial Times quotes Duncan McDonnell, a professor of politics at Griffith University in Queensland, as saying, "The heart of Australian politics beats on the right. It's a conservative country and I think there was a trend in this election in which voters asked 'if it isn't broke, why fix it?'"

And now we come to Europe, where opinion polls show populist forces set to make major gains in the European Parliament election to be held later this week. All of Europe's mainstream, pro-EU political alliances are expected to lose seats, with the big winners likely to be the Europe of Nations and Freedom group, anchored by Matteo Salvini's League in Italy and Marine Le Pen's National Rally in France.

Take note of the name "Europe of Nations and Freedom". The group rejects absolute the idea of a "post-national" Europe run by a supra-national government at Brussels which would have the power to override the wishes of the different peoples of the different nations which comprise the EU. As the sign says, their ideas of "power to the people" and "a Europe of free nations" are spreading everywhere in Europe.

Last Saturday, Matteo Salvini led a rally of right-wing populist leaders in Milan, as they campaign for the transformation of European politics. Sig. Salvini, Minister of the Interior and head of the League party, is at the forefront of a growing movement of nationalist leaders seeking to free the 28 nations of the EU from what he calls the "illegal occupation" of Brussels.

Sig. Salvini was joined by ten other nationalist leaders, including Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally and Joerg Meuthen of the Alternativ für Deutschland. The event was a major tour de force for the expanding movement ahead of the vote that will take place in all 28 EU nations on May 23rd-26th.

In his speech, Sig. Salvini decried unchecked migration, pledging to close Europe's borders to migrants. He also attacked Islam, saying it mistreats women. He said Turkey would never be a part of Europe and rejected the label of extremists for the leaders with him. "In this piazza, there are no extremists," he said. "There are no racists. There are no fascists. If anything in Italy and in Europe, the difference is between who looks ahead, between who speaks of the future...instead of making trials of the past."

Further reading:
"Australian Politics, Upside-Down: A populist revolt stuns Canberra, and elites respond predictably", by Emmett Hare, on City-Journal, 20/5/19.
"Has the Day of the Nationalists Come?", by Patrick J. Buchanan, on Lew Rockwell, 22/5/19.

Indian priorities on display -- world's tallest statue

Here it is, dear readers, a photo of the World's Tallest Statue, unveiled just in time for Hallowe'en in India's western state of Gujarat.

Nearly 600 feet tall -- twice the height of the Statue of Liberty -- the "Statue of Unity" really is a biggie! Indeed so! It depicts Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (or "S.V. Patel" for short), a leader of India's independence movement. Mr Patel, who orchestrated the annexation of India's self-governing "princely states", is not exactly a champion of unity. His political philosophy fits better with the aggressive nationalism of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party than more famous heroes of independence, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who stood for the softer ideals of peace and tolerance. However, Mr Patel, like his millions of namesakes aroound the world, is a "Guj" -- a Gujarati. So that explains it.

Another prominent Guj is India's Prime Minister, Narendra Damodardas Modi, who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. Prime Minister Modi is a member of the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Mr Modi's administration has been blamed for the Gujarat anti-Muslim riots of 2002 Gujarat riots, but a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team found no evidence to initiate prosecution proceedings. So that's all right then.

Mr Modi's administration has also been criticized for failing to significantly improve health, poverty, and education indices in Gujarat, and now in India as a hole. [Ed., don't correct my spelling. Quod scripsi scripsi!] Which brings me the question of priorities. The Patel statue is said to have cost upwards of $400 million dollars. This in a country where according to the World Bank, nearly two-thirds of the people still defecate in the open. Makes you think, doesn't it? If you're an Indian politician, maybe not.

Further reading: "Shitting in fields leads to gang rape, hanging of Indian girls", WWW 30/5/14.

Footnote: Another famous Indian who, although he's not named "Patel", is almost certainly a Gujarati, is Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, who is being written out of The Simpsons following NPC criticism that he is just a racist caricature. In an episode last April, Lisa said to her mother, "Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?" Indeed.

Fire drill? No, MUSLIM drill!

Never let it be said that there's racial or religious discrimination in India! Oh... wait a minute...

OK, let it be said. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, police in Surat district dressed actors in white skullcaps and long tunics to play the part of "militants" -- "Islamic" implied -- in mock security drills. The whole exercise was captured on video, as was another drill in Narmada district in which the "militants", to add a bit more realism, shouted "Islam Zindabad (Long live Islam)!"

Muslim leaders in India and the neighbouring states of Pakistan and Bangladesh have called the videos "atrocious and highly condemnable". They say the videos stereotype Muslims, who make up nearly 14% of India's 1.2 billion population, as narrow-minded, fanatical, terrorists bent on murdering all infidels, yada yada yada, whereas Islam is, as we all know, the Religion of Peace(TM).

The exercise was "a mistake", said Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel. "It's wrong to link religion with terrorism," he said. "The issue has been resolved and the matter should be put to rest now. The mistake has been rectified by my good Mrs. Patel." [Ed., please check that quote for accuracy.]

Police initially tried to brush off the criticism. Inspector Sherlock Patel [Ed., please check name] said the skullcaps were used "to give [the ones portraying terrorists] a different look", but later apologized saying the situation could have been avoided, "had not someone done something evil to the plans." [Ed., please...]

In the months since becoming prime minister, Mr. Modi has talked about inclusiveness, but his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has its core base among hardline Hindus and many Hindu fundamentalist groups -- yes, the Hindus have fundamentalists too -- have recently been accused of forcibly converting Muslims and Christians. Mahatma Gandhi is no doubt spinning in his grave. [Wouldn't he have been cremated, not buried? Ed.]

Speaking of the Great Soul and religious tolerance, BBC News reports that a row broke out a few days ago after Indian government minister Niranjan Jyoti used an abusive term to refer to non-Hindus, by asking people at a public rally to choose between Ramzada (children of the Hindu god Ram) and Haramzada (bastards). Prime Minister Modi said he disapproved of her language but refused to sack her.