Opinion | Sabrina Siddiqui and the Growing Anti-India Cabal in West

India’s emergence as a global leader under the supervision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have agitated a particular section of the Western world. This is especially when India is being governed by a party that has placed the interest of the country in the forefront and is proud of its civilisational/cultural past.

The popular vote of the country is with the regime that has promised the countrymen abrogation of Article 370, reconstruction of Ram Mandir, and introduction of a Uniform Civil Code to establish peace and harmony in the country, considering these three are the root causes of unrest, violence and insurgency in the country. Prime Minister Modi and his government has worked with prejudice to push the welfare of all in India, irrespective of caste, creed and religion. Yes, during the recent US visit, an unnecessary controversy was created regarding the condition of Muslims in India — first by former US President Barack Obama and then by an American journalist, Sabrina Siddiqui.

Sabrina Siddiqui is a known anti-Modi journalist. She is a Pakistani-origin Muslim, engaged with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) covering the White House and the Joe Biden administration. But if you go through her social media timeline, she seems to be more engaged in creating a false narrative against India and PM Modi. She has posted or retweeted several tweets about so-called atrocities against Muslims in India, the Covid failure of the Modi government, India’s high-handedness during the farmers’ protests, etc, but the fate of minorities in Pakistan, where they are living in hellfire, has never evoked the same sense of anger and outrage.

With each passing day, there has been a rising number of cases in Pakistan where Hindu, Christian and Ahmadi girls are being raped and converted to Islam. But in India, the fact of the matter is that Muslims are the most favoured beneficiary under the current Modi-led regime. All the measures and decisions taken by the BJP government have benefited the Muslim community.

Article 370 was kept as a live wire to create an anti-India sentiment among the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir. With its abrogation, the sentiment is gone. The contention of Ram Janmabhoomi was unnecessarily carried on for 72 years by respective governments, hence becoming a communal issue and disturbing some or other parts of the country every now and then. The one remaining promise of this regime is the Uniform Civil Code, to establish equal human rights and citizen rights to each citizen irrespective of gender, caste, creed or religious leaning.

Currently, Muslims have Muslim Personal Law, which forbids women from many rights, and this is clearly undemocratic and illiberal. The abolition of nikah-halala and triple talaq has empowered Muslim women in India. The patriarchal elements in Muslim society are all out against these ameliorations, as they see empowered women as a danger to their atrocious rights, hence are against the ruling BJP.

If we look at the West, especially the US, we find an entrenched Islamic lobby that is vehemently against the rise of India. This group has become especially hyperactive after Modi came to power in New Delhi in 2014, and even more vehemently after 2019. It is this group that had a field day after Siddiqui questioned Prime Minister Modi on the Muslim state of affairs in India. On India and Modi, there seems to be some sort of ‘common cause’ between Siddiqui and these groups operating in the US.

Sabrina Siddiqui, thus, seems to be part of the ecosystem that:

1. Advocates freedom for those indulging in anti-India, anti-Hindu activities
2. Calls Hindu genocide in Kashmir a myth and “non-communal” but the incident initiated after torching 58 Hindu lives inside a train in Godhra as a state-sponsored pogrom
3. Seeks freedom to wear hijab in schools and colleges
4. Opposes the proposed Uniform Civil Code for all citizens of India
5. Advocates cow slaughter, even when it hurts the religious sentiments of the majority Hindu community
6. Calls for civil rights for illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar but opposes refuge to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians from neighbouring Muslim countries

One can see that the arguments raised above are biased and ludicrous for a civil society. Siddiqui, wittingly or unwittingly, is part of that larger group which wants to destabilise democratic structures across the world, including in India.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited the US weeks before PM Modi’s June visit. His visit was organised by those affiliated with George Soros and connected to other groups such as MCNJ, ICNA, IAMC, and IMANA. These interrelated entities share the goal of harming India’s foreign interests.

The June 4 event in New York was coordinated by a number of people, including Tanzeem Ansari, the Amir of the Muslim Community of New Jersey’s (MCNJ) outreach committee. Imam Jawad Ahmed, who was born in Pakistan and is the project director of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), leads the MCNJ.

It is worth mentioning that the ICNA has been linked to Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and has been known to support their views on India, notably on Kashmir. Some people claim that the ICNA has ties to extremist and terrorist organisations. Furthermore, they have voiced support for people such as Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, lauding his fight for Kashmir’s independence from India.

Another event coordinator, Mohammad Aslam, is a member of the Muslim Centre of Greater Princeton (MCGP), which is affiliated with the ICNA. It is worth mentioning that the ICNA includes the founder of the outlawed Indian extremist organisation SIMI. Minhaj Khan, the event’s self-appointed coordinator, has ties to IAMC, which has been characterised as an anti-India lobbying organisation that criticises India while claiming to be concerned with human rights and religious freedom.

The IMANA, another host to Rahul, has been accused of contact with Pakistani terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, raising worries about its affiliations. The Canada Revenue Agency charged ISNA Canada in 2017 with supporting Hizbul Mujahideen’s charitable branch.

During his visit to the US, Gandhi was also seen with Sunita Vishwanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights, a Hindu rights organisation that is considered an extension of organisations such as the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and the Organisation for Minorities of India (OFMI).

This anti-India bandwagon has now been joined by Khalistan terror outfits operating out of Canada and the US. Last year’s farmers’ unrest was sponsored by Khalistan organisations as well as Islamic radicals.

India is a secular democracy by virtue of its majority Hindu community. A Hindu, after all, is secular by nature. India does not need to have a secular, liberal certificate from those people and countries whose own credentials are dubious.

Gopal Goswami is a Surat-based researcher and columnist. He tweets @igopalgoswami. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.