The Hindutva-Zionist Alliance Has Never Looked So Ominous by CJ Werleman

For the first time in Britain’s history a person of colour has climbed to the country’s highest political office, but newly sworn in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is no friend of ethnic and religious minorities, given he has advocated policies that discriminate against Asian, Arab, and African migrants, particularly those belonging to the Islamic faith.

In a recent interview, Sunak parroted a white nationalist trope about so-called “grooming gangs,” while vowing to not let “political correctness get in the way” of stamping out what he called a “horrific crime.”

But when Sunak invokes “political correctness” in this context – what he’s really saying is he’s willing to crackdown on Muslim communities over their alleged paedophile rings, despite the Muslim “grooming gang” fallacy being dismissed as Islamophobic nonsense by leading criminologists and the Crown Prosecution Service’s lead on child sex crimes.

Worryingly – this has not stopped Sunak propagating a lie that’s meant only to target Muslim communities with more police surveillance and harassment, resulting in the detention and arrest of more innocent Muslims.

Sunak has also promised to “refocus” the controversial Prevent UK program on “Islamic extremism,” despite the anti-radicalization strategy being  discredited by 140 prominent academics for its discriminatory fixation on Muslim communities. He has also announced plans to include the “vilification of the United Kingdom” into an official definition of extremism, which means anyone who criticizes the UK government’s foreign policy could be detained or arrested – therefore putting pro-Palestinian and pro-Kashmiri activists in the firing line.

For these reasons and more, Sunak has been described as the ideal Trojan horse for the Hindutva-Zionist alliance, or what others call the “Islamophobia alliance,” which brings together an array of pro-India and pro-Israel groups to push Islamophobic policies in the West, with the purpose of undermining solidarity for Palestinian and Kashmiri liberation movements.

Broadly speaking, the alliance has several key objectives: to advance the political interests of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party in India, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party in Israel; sanction Pakistan; criminalize the Boycott, Sanction, Divestment (BDS) movement; and provide diplomatic cover for Israeli war crimes in Palestine and India’s human rights abuses in Kashmir.

Azad Essa, a columnist for Middle East Eye, says that Islamophobia sits at the heart of this new alliance, saying, “Both Zionism and Hindutva are pushing colonial and expansionist ideas. Both are ethnonationalist ideologies with an emphasis on race, territory, and nativism.”

The alliance constitutes a large number of pro-Israel and pro-India groups, which work in tandem to amplify and support each other’s objectives.

On the pro-India side, there’s HSS, Hindu Council of Britain, Sewa International, and others. While on the pro-Israel side, there’s the Conservative Friends of Israel, Zionist Federation, Friends of Israel, and others. Occasionally, the Hindutva-Zionist alliance even teams up with Armenian groups to pressure Western governments into sanctioning and punishing Turkey and Pakistan.

So, now we have Rishi Sunak – who is the perfect vessel to carry the water for the Hindutva-Zionist alliance, given he’s a devout Hindu with family ties to the Modi regime, and shown a particular fondness for Israel.

Likewise, his billionaire-father-in-law, Narayana Murthy, who owns the tech giant Infosys, deserves scrutiny here because he’s not only an avid supporter of Modi’s hateful politics but also has significant investments in Israel.

Infosys even provides technology to Israel’s infamous Unit 8200, which spies on Palestinians and then uses sensitive information to blackmail them as part of the country’s spying program.

It’s no surprise then that given his family’s investments in Israel, Sunak has promised to criminalize BDS; praised Israel as a “shining beacon of hope,” and expressed his potential support for relocating the British embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a city he describes as Israel’s “historic capital,” despite such recognition constituting a war crime.

For these reasons, Sunak’s rise to the top of UK politics was welcomed with great enthusiasm in Israel. Sunak returned the compliment a few weeks later, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was returned to power, saying, “Across areas like trade, security and technology there is a huge amount our countries do together, and I look forward to working with the returning Prime Minister.”

Sunak has also been quickly embraced by Hindu nationalists, including India’s ruling party – BJP – because they believe his selection advances the Hindutva project in India, a project that aims to eradicate and annihilate 250 million Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians on the way to transforming India into a Hindu rashtra (nation).

But for Muslims in Britain, Sunak moves into 10 Downing Street at the same time Hindu extremists are committing a wave of violence against Muslims in Leicester, which is the latest example of how “the toxic politics that are roiling India have migrated to other parts of the globe,” according to the New York Times.

Muslims are now asking what the new Prime Minister will do to arrest Hindu extremist violence in Britain, given Sunak’s family’s close ties to the Modi government in India, and the influence the Hindutva Lobby has over the Conservative Party.

The obvious answer is nothing. In fact, there’s every reason to believe he will embolden Hindu extremists to incite more communal violence against Muslims in the UK by falsely accusing Muslims of peddling “Hinduphobia,” a non-existent form of racism invented by the Hindutva Lobby, but copied from the Zionist Lobby playbook, to deflect criticism away from Hindu nationalist policies by reframing it as an attack on the Hindu religion.

Clearly, the Hindutva and Zionist ideologies make for ideal bedfellows, but with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in power, the alliance formed between the pair has never looked so ominous