Staff writer Danial Ahmed examines the growing international influence of the Bharatiya Janata Party on both British politics and student life.
It has become ever more clear, since Brexit, that a concerning number of our MPs harbour loyalties and allegiances that are increasingly unaligned with British interests. Be it in tandem with Bangladesh, India, Israel, or even Pakistan, those once far away are making a near-catastrophic foray into influencing British domestic and foreign policy that will not benefit us and come at the cost of our own well-being.
Our nation is so open for business that we now have individuals from foreign nations calling on the removal of duly elected British MPs. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of Jess Phillips, Keir, or Angela Rayner. But their election was cemented in Britain by Brits, not manufactured in a Tesla plant in Dallas by some underpaid and overworked labourer.
Beyond the antics of Mr Musk, it is worth examining the extent to which Indian nationalism has penetrated British politics. In the last election, I was unfortunate enough to stumble upon a tweet from an account labelled ‘Overseas Friends of BJP (U.K.)’. The fact that something like this doesn’t illicit immediate concern from any reader should be worrying. Why is there a branch of a foreign party in the United Kingdom? And secondly, why does it interfere in sovereign elections in favour of a particular candidate? Well for one, it risks twisting our policies at the whim of a party thousands of miles away and risks muddling domestic politics. Nations have unique internal political dynamics and in our case, they are too delicate for this type of interaction. If the lines keep blurring, there is a very great threat of ‘British’ politics slowly fading into the amalgamated mass of foreign agendas.
This is a line of concern that runs deeper than just politics. Britain is a sovereign nation, as is India. And yet, the ruling party in India sees no problem in setting up a foreign branch in the UK. Should it now be possible for the UK’s Labour or Conservative parties to travel to Delhi and do the same? Obviously not. But the double standards here are palpable. British politics have no place in sovereign India. Yet, a party designed solely to address the concerns of Indians is branching out and taking root in British politics. If Britain did the same in India; we would be ‘colonising’ and the ruling polity would yet again dredge up the British Raj, highlighting the wrongs and blaming modern Britain, whilst continuing to utilise the industry that was built under it.
And foreign allegiances threaten to rip our nation apart. Bob Blackman is the perfect example of this. The UK’s stance on Kashmir is that it is a problem solely between the Kashmiris and the two nations of India and Pakistan. Yet Blackman seems to unabashedly support the Indian position. Why? Well, it may be due to the large Indian vote present in Harrow and his desperate attempts to court it. So who is Mr Blackman more loyal to?
Clearly, there’s a conflict here. And his stance ignores the position Hindutva nationalists have towards Britain. While at the face of it, there seems to be a clear favourable stance towards Britain, there lies a postcolonial grievance at the heart of it, one which seeks to cripple Britain in favour of India. And it looks as if some of our MPs seem to be all for it, ignoring the harm it could do to Britain. The recent Free Trade Agreement talks have put this in the spotlight, with British MPs considering a slew of policies that could detrimentally affect the labour market in the UK. The corruption that already exists in Indian institutions may even spill over into the UK, a very real problem that Parliament has highlighted. One only has to look at Canada to realise the staggering impact a deal like this could potentially have. While there is most definitely a point to be made about the finer impacts, one cannot ignore the effect of possibly introducing a large pool of candidates into an already-saturated labour market in the UK, where wages have remained stagnant for more than a decade whilst property prices have more than doubled. And to make matters worse, it’s very clear that Delhi sees itself able to extract more from Britain, as was seen by the National Insurance payments scandal under the Sunak government. Most certainly, it could be a potential victory in India, but it comes at our expense.
Indian nationalism might well be a good phenomenon for India, but it will come at the cost of our own wellbeing. This dichotomy will be made even more dangerous by India positioning itself as both the victim of Imperialism and the neighbour continuing to impose itself upon the region by challenging the identity of other neighbouring countries like Nepal. And there is a case to be made for its western neighbour too. Pakistan is not exactly a saintly state, but its forays into our politics are limited.
But any sense-abiding Briton cannot ignore the damage India, and Hindu nationalism will do to Britain if they are allowed to operate unchallenged. Already, there are increasing fears of Islamic fundamentalism, but that problem can easily be solved through sheer diligence and an application of the law. Worryingly, Hindu nationalism’s capture of our institutions and its forays into the intellectual space in Britain risk ruining the foundations of British academia that formed over centuries of hard work.
This was seen a few years ago at LSE, where the term ‘hinduphobia’ was thrown around so callously. The very real phenomenon of hinduphobia was used as a false pretext to attack the rightful disqualification of an Indian Candidate from the LSE student elections, who is said to have intimidated student voters into voting for him. This problem was reported to the LSESU, which promptly annulled his candidacy after debating it amongst an internal panel of diverse candidates. An apolitical institution that exists solely to advance our understanding of academia was put under fire by a plethora of Indian media outlets who, in usual fashion, did little research. These dogmatic attacks did not cease, even after the candidate’s misbehaviours were exposed by LSE. Yet the force of Indian nationalism was brought down upon an institution that exists solely to provide education that supposedly the candidate could not find in India!
And as our politicians seek a closer relationship with India, these events will only increase in frequency and vitriol. A closer relationship with India is harmless and even beneficial in allowing us to deal with China. But, in the interest of Britain, we must subdue foreign influence before it overtakes our institutions and bends them to a will that is not ours.
