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3 I get
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welcome to Sputnik orbiting the world
with me George Galloway and me gatri for
decades the Naro family bestro India
like a Colossus the founder of the
dnasty led the independent struggle and
then his daughter Mrs Gandhi piloted the
country through many Troubled Waters
mainly clinging to Nero's policy of
non-alignment Suspicion of us hegemony
and an aversion to neoliberalism
she succumbed to an assassin as in turn
did her successor and Son Rajiv Gandhi
over the last few years raji's Widow
Italian born Sonia has been the power
behind the throne as their party
Congress has done more u-turns than
their sister party new labor here in
Britain out went the old and in came the
new Congress embracing new liberal
economics and aligning mainly with the
US in the process they appear to have
burned large parts of their once V fast
and poor electoral base just by all they
have left is that they are a secular
option standing weekly against the tide
of Hindu nationalism and just like new
labor paved the way for the return of
the conservatives so it seems new
Congress has paved the way to the
possible reemergence of a very powerful
adversary Narendra Modi with real
dangers to the very Unity of the country
to help us understand the alphabet soup
which is the Indian election we invited
prominent British political activist and
civil rights campaigner himself of
Indian background sures Grover and I'm
glad to say he joins us now on the
Sputnik sures welcome uh for the
uninitiated which uh I'm afraid partly
includes me uh paint a picture would you
of the main Runners and riders in this
Indian election well the main Runners
would be obviously the Indian National
Congress which is led by Sonia Gandhi
and her son Rahul Gandhi then you have
the BJP the Bara J party which is a
Hindu nationalist party and its prime
minister candidate is Narendra Modi and
then you have arind kraal who is uh the
latest addition to a very powerful force
in India against corruption against
communal disharmony and against crony
capitalism which is what the manifesto
says uh who's part of the arm admy party
known as AAP uh and then you have
Regional figures who've been stall vs
for a long time for example mamab B
from West Bengal who broke away from
Congress some time ago then you have
people like nites Kumar from biar uh you
have ja who was an actress before in
taminadu who who actually in terms of
power blocks in terms of building
alliances with these two parties are
very very forceful uh Indian elections
for some time haven't had a majority of
either the two main political parties
BJP or the Indian national Congress so
the magical figure for them is 272 seats
out of
543 the last elections saw Indian
National Congress got 206 seats and the
BJP around 118 so they have to build a
National Alliance or different forms of
alliances So currently the congress
party has the United Progressive
Alliance the UPA UPA and the PARTA J
party which is in opposition is called
the national democratic elction Alliance
so it is a
political um U framework which has to
link up with other political parties and
in that are political parties who will
never join with the BJP like the
Communist Party the United left blocks
either the Communist Party of India the
Communist Party Marxist I was going to
ask you about them because the Communist
Party of marxist were once a powerful
force I mean they ran uh West Bengal
didn't they for 36 years and mam banerji
broke that in the last election now the
block of which Congress is the principal
uh uh block uh building block uh as the
name suggests used to be the progressive
or Center left part of politics but in
my introduction you'll have heard my
thesis that actually Congress has lost
its way is no longer really deserving of
the title uh left am I right in that
absolutely followed new liberal policies
it created an industrial Bastion which
favored industrial over poor people and
cut wages uh it increased gas prices it
increased prices of raw materials and
foods like onions which has shifted
political parties away from congress
party because of the dissent of ordinary
people and it's also uh extremely
corrupt there are three difficulties at
the moment in India the first is the
issue of corruption who really will
tackle it seriously the second is who
will tackle crony capitalism as as it's
known in in India who will actually
stand against the big power blocks the
Tartas the Bas the financial power
blocks the Tartas the Bas the ambanis
the mythal and what's happened in
Gujarat this is where Modi comes in he's
given free access to these big
industrialists to situate their houses
in Gujarat he's made a free market
Paradise hasn't he it's like a new trade
new free trade zones as we used to know
them and that's had an adverse effect on
both environment law and labor laws and
the gap between the rich and the poor
has increased not just in Gujarat but
actually over the last despite the
economic growth of
8% massively in India over the last year
so the economic framework and how you
tackle that and how you going into the
rural areas is going to be very very
crucial the third factor which I think
nobody's talking about but I believe it
to be a very serious factor is that out
of the 810 million people who are
legible to vot we're talking about a
massive number of people out of 1.2
billion there's 810 million who will
vote 100 million are new voters now the
Indian population about 65% of them are
below 35 years of age 50% of them are
between 18 and 23 now they started
mobilizing on the streets against rapes
for example and violence against women
against corruption now where will they
go who's going to take their votes well
on that kind of subject when I mention
the word garat here in this country in
my own area in Bradford for example it
means only one thing it means
intercommunal violence and Slaughter now
Modi was the the chief minister who was
in power when a massacre of Muslims in
Gujarat took place does that suggest
that the Muslims will be throwing their
weight almost universally behind Mr
Gandhi and Congress not necessarily with
Congress but with other political
parties they have their own samage party
in Gujarat but what Modi is trying to
say is that he can win over Muslim votes
now I represent the da family who live
in batle very near to Bradford and they
were the British tourists who were
killed during the genocide in 2002 and
we've taken action against Modi on
crimes against humanity and I served a
writ on him in Gujarat in 2004 now that
genocide is one of
the most polarizing brutal acts of
violence that has ever taken place in
that subcontinent which has seen
experienced festi side not even genocide
I mean the partition which I'm a product
of
uh Saw 3 million people ding a period of
three three months or so so in Gujarat
Modi being the chief minister as you
know it developed as a result of a
burning of the Hindu Seas Saks in godra
57 people died Modi being the chief
minister abdicated his
responsibility threw away the
constitution of India called a bun which
is a strike where the law enforcement
agencies became paralyzed whipped up
anger against Muslim Community and large
um blamed the uh the burning of the
Train on the ICI ICI in Pakistan when he
had no evidence and then sought Revenge
by putting police officers in police
stations so they could monitor where uh
massacres were taking place and would
not respond a congress Member of
Parliament efran Jaffrey according to
his daughter and his servants rang Modi
when he was being killed slaughtered to
place about him and his family 57 people
died and mod refused to help as a result
2,000 Muslims these are official figures
they bound to be more were massacred
100,000 were displaced and about 80% of
Muslim businesses were targeted in Us in
around Amad the capital of Gujarat so
where would Muslim voters go certainly
not with Modi in my view you know mod
Modi is a a lifetime member of the RSS
he was born into it he's been a servant
extremist it's a militaristic wing and
it's political Wing is the BJP it's a
secretive male dominated militaristic
Army of 1 million people and this is the
milu from which he comes just time for
one last uh question dynastic nepotistic
policies neru was one thing Mrs Gandhi
also was uh another uh but now we're
into what's that four uh Generations now
and it would be wrong to say that each
generation is better than the last is
this the end for the neru Gandhi family
if Rahul uh loses this one not really
the reason for that is I think Rahul
doesn't want to stand and and this is
going to be very important yes of course
the Congress has no other Central
figures apart from the gandhis and
that's deliberately done to create and
um harness that denti wing and everybody
in the congress party not independent uh
commentators but they'd rather have
prianka the daughter of Sonia Gandhi the
the sister of Rahul leading the party
she's more charismatic she's brighter
than him um it's not the end because the
results are not predictable I know
there's a wave that saying um Modi will
definitely win but they only have 116
seats at the moment and for them to get
272 creates a massive increase in
percentages of votes and I think it
really depends on who's good at horse
trading in terms of alliances Etc if
anybody wants to go the with the BJP
they'll never get being a prime minister
for example because Modi wants to be the
prime minister with Congress it's likely
they'll accept yeah somebody else from a
prime minister I think the dasty isn't
going to go I think it will only go if
the grassroot Ordinary People begin to
have a momentum and it'd be interesting
to see where up goes this election from
Delhi to a national party is going to be
a massive qualitative leap the only
National part is Congress BJP only has
real power in five states out of 30 odd
so who creates that National picture is
going to be important so will you come
back and talk to us after the result
absolutely with pleasure be fantastic
sures grova thanks very much coming up
after the break as a wave of
islamophobia accompanies the run-up to
elections here in Britain we'll be
talking to one of the British Muslim
communities brightest stars we'll be
right
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back welcome back to the Sputnik in the
nearby London barar hamlets the
independent mayor L for Raman is
embroiled in a bitter reelection
campaign under state sponsored fire from
the BBC to the communities and local
government Minister the former commander
of the anti-terrorism police has been
sent in by the British prime minister to
investigate uh the election of school
governors in the Midlands in which
Muslims are alleged to be organizing to
get Muslim parents involved in running
their children's schools wow and then
just across the river from us now from
the pulpit of Bloomberg's last week Tony
Blair finally went absolutely berserk
declaring war permanent war that is of
the orwellian 1984 variety on Muslims
worldwide anyone would think there was
an election coming up indeed joining us
now to take the temperature in the
British culture wars is anayat Bala
always my first Port of Call on matters
pertaining to the British Muslim
Community in welcome let's start with
the most serious of these three examples
we gave of this new wave that we seem to
be in the middle of the speech at
Bloomberg's by Tony Blair even startled
most mainstream commentators such was
its
Manan uh apocalyptic Vision how did it
play to you well let's let's take some
context to this uh Speech I mean Tony
Blair our former prime minister is a man
whose reputation worldwide is now in
shreds following the Iraq War um he's
widely believed to have misled the
British public and Parliament over the
reasons for war he led us to war and a
false perspectus this is now established
opinion in in Britain and he's expected
to come under very heavy criticism in
the forthcoming chilot report so he's a
man whose reputation is is already in in
in tus and this is now him trying to Reg
try and regain some Credence amongst the
public by uh engaging in what is always
a hobby which will get you some votes in
Britain which is back bashing Islam and
bashing Muslims by scare mongering about
the faith of Islam and and the faith of
millions of Believers worldwide it's
interesting to point out that just a
decade ago 11 12 years ago during the
run-up to war in Iraq Tony Blair and
other uh neocon commentators were making
the argument that they had to intervene
in Iraq to establish democracy to
promote freedoms and now just last week
Tony Blair very openly very unashamedly
was arguing in favor of the overthrow of
the Egyptian government which was Dem
atically elected whose president
president Mory was democratically
brought to power so he's now gone is
totally uh overturned his arguments from
11 years ago and now unashamedly
supporting autocrats in the region and
he's also doing this currently as a
peace Envoy of the Middle East you know
you if you made up the story you
couldn't make that up could you he's
he's the the permanent priest Envoy to
the Middle East this it's actually quite
frightening yeah well look if his
concept of democracy turns out to be
elastic so does his uh definition of
extremist because he argued that we
ought to be more deeply involved in the
Civil War and foreign intervention in
Syria which could only bring by any
standards extremists uh into power in
Damascus and of course the one country
he didn't mention at all was Saudi
Arabia which is the font of almost all
extremism it's astonishing because I
mean any analysis of the rise of
extremism over the last 20 years will
always Focus the Locust will always be
Saudi Arabia where a very uh very um
intolerant brand of Islam has been
promoted and exported in in other parts
of the world the Saudi monarchy is
perhaps the most reactionary monarchy in
the entire world it's it's and the UNF
freest and the least Democratic
absolutely you know they they routinely
I mean I was there and I was there to
perform Hajj I couldn't buy a copy of
the Quran translated by Muhammad Assad
who was a a Western European and because
it was regarded as a not an accurate
translation so they routinely too
liberal absolutely so they routinely
censor books they routinely uh deny the
PO their population access to freedoms
and yet this is the one government that
Tony Blair did not there's not a single
word mentioned about he mentioned lots
of different governments in the region
and his his uh solution to bring uh
greater freedoms to these countries but
Saudi Arabia not a word it's almost as
if as long as Saudi Arabia keeps uh
spending hundreds of millions of dollars
every year buying useless Weaponry from
the west and then it will be overlooked
the the uh reasons for him making the
speech then uh prophylactic reasons in
advance of the chilot though God knows
when chilot is going to report we can
understand why did the British media uh
give it such extraordinary prominence it
dominated the news agenda for fully 24
almost 48 Hours yes it's just it's true
I mean it's it's regrettable that uh a
speech from a man who's been so
discredited can get that kind of
publicity but in today's climate where
the government La last year did try and
make an attempt to um uh Galvanize the
population although it failed into
supporting attack on Syria uh this is
another attempt by Tony Blair down the
same line to try and Galvanize public
opinion into rally rallying it behind
great aggression in the Muslim world and
so the establishment must kind of favor
that uh you or they would given them the
prominence well it's worth reflecting
that at the time of the Iraq well the
British public was very heavily divided
you know maybe 5050 or 6040 but the vast
majority of the press did support uh
Tony Blair's invasion of Iraq and all
the Murdoch press was almost unanimous
in it support for Iraq so the
establishment was very much behind this
intervention in Muslim countries you
mentioned the climate so let's dig
deeper into the climate this Trojan
Horse business where the heus crime is
alleged that some Muslims were trying to
get themselves elected to the board of
school governors in a country crying out
for people to come forward to become
School Governors and school Governors
don't have very much power or authority
anyway the government has sent in the
former commander of the anti-terrorism
squad to look into this plot yes I mean
if that's not stirring up islamophobia I
can't imagine what is well it's worth be
in mind here who our education secretary
in Britain is uh it is Michael Gove and
Michael Gove used to be uh chairman of
policy exchange which is a very neocon
uh Think Tank here in the UK um it's
very very regrettable that Michael go
chose uh I believe it's detective
inspector Clark exactly the former
antiterrorist Chief to head this
investigation even the chief conable of
the West Midlands said it was very very
regret it was because it was seen as by
by Muslims in Birmingham as trying to uh
again um vilify a legitimate uh suit
which is trying to get more Muslims
engaged in the running of their schools
you would think where Muslims constitute
the majority in many schools in
Birmingham in that area Muslim do
constitute the majority of of of the
population in in in in terms of pupils
you think the government would welcome a
greater involvement by their parents in
the education of their own children but
here I think Michael Gove and some
right-wing commentators have hinted that
there is a Sinister plot an islamist
plot uh to try and take over these
schools but if if there was then we'd
need to see the evidence and up till now
the evidence hasn't really been
forthcoming we've seen an anonymous
letter which has not not been really we
don't know who auth is it may all turn
out to be a hoax my sources in
Birmingham which are many and well
placed indicate that actually it's a
forgery it's a hoax and of course just
along the road from here uh L for Raman
uh we don't want to interfere in the
electoral process which has begun we
don't have a side uh can't have as a a
British television program uh in this
but it was a remarkable barrage that the
elected mayor came under all at a very
advantageous time just before the
elections kicked off BBC the state
broadcaster in Britain in its Panorama
Flagship opened fire uh no sooner had
the uh closing credits disappeared off
the screen the communities Minister had
sent in the police who a couple of days
later uh said there was no case to
answer uh but nonetheless the inspectors
are still in and so on this surely is
belongs as part of this picture that I'm
trying to describe of Britain in the
grip of an islamophobic wave it is uh it
was again it was astonishing that Eric
pickles responded to what was a very
inflammatory BBC documentary uh on
Panorama by sending an inspector so
quickly uh it's I mean we know there's
been bad blood between L for Rahman and
the conservative party L for rman used
to be a member of the labor party had to
uh stand as an independent and you know
it has to be said he was elected by by a
lot of substantial support you don't
just get elected as an independent MP
just like that you have to have some
Grassroots standing there so it was an
incredible campaign he ran some several
years ago and to see the BBC intervening
in what seemed to uh say to to my eyes a
very very party political way was was
regrettable but it was remember we have
to bear in mind the reported behind it
John wear is not not no stranger to
controversial reporting on the BBC he is
not in fact I made a complaint about him
many years ago in a Saudi related story
which was upheld uh which is a was a
rare experience uh for me um so summing
up what's life like for the 2 million
Muslims in Britain today in this
atmosphere British Muslims have been on
the spotlight now for a number of years
and um the events of 9911 only exacer
that Spotlight we've seen uh many
right-wing commentators in the UK who
are you know very extensively placed in
in our media uh continually vilifying
this community we've seen the rise of a
explicitly anti-muslim movement in the
shape of the English Defense League uh
targeting British Muslims uh our
established farri parties like the
British national party make no bonds
every time there is an election their
campaign is explicitly anti-muslim they
see it as a way of winning votes what
most depressing is that some of our
mainstream parties like the conservative
party in Britain have seen this as a as
a vote winner as well and rather than
pushing back against his extremism
pushing back against his racism they
appear all too eager to jump on board uh
the bashing Muslims bandwagon that is
really really regretable and it's it's
not just we in the UK who are uh seeing
this it's an established Trend in Europe
now as well we see European parties far
right parties and M rightwing parties
are are uh seeking rally votes on the
back of anti-muslim Hysteria inight
bonga as always I'm deeply grateful
thanks for
that and now it's your turn to tell us
what you think through the portals of
social media what's rattling gri well I
asked the people whether Britain is in
the grip of islamophobia to which Jack
Tipple replies it's been in the grip of
islamophobia since the West needed a new
Boogyman at the fall of the Iran curtain
well that's true uh but periodically uh
it waxes and wins and it's definitely
waxing right now and that has to be
connected to the European Parliament
elections the local elections the
xenophobia of ukip and so on and of
course the general election just next
year Chris Allen says that the
government would like that to be the
case but most people I know have their
own minds um about the speech that Blair
made last week RM makes the point that
the one country Blair did not mention in
his radical speech was Saudi Arabia H
wonder why well he he didn't mention it
but he implicitly said that we should
back it uh which is a measure of just
how perverse this speech was yeah you
could make it up about India Moss says
that the election will be between the
nepotistic Congress and the anti-
non-hindu BJP AA way don't have hope in
hell and talif KH says that both
Congress and BJP serve the corporate
interest and that we just have to choose
between the L devil that's all for this
week which unfortunately means that's
the end of the show you can keep touch
with us on Twitter at rtor Sputnik and
on Facebook you can like us on Sputnik
on Russia today it's goodbye from me gri
and from me George Galloway it's been
marvelous
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