Nadia Whittome, the recently elected Member of Parliament to the United Kingdom’s House of Commons from Nottingham East, has generated quite the flutter in Indian circles on social media. In the aftermath of the Anti-Hindu Delhi Riots, the ‘Baby of the House’ (youngest MP) has labelled the communal riots where numerous Hindus were murdered as a ‘pogrom’ against the Muslim community, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The 23-year old MP from the Labour Party has called the communal riots a “sustained and systemic Hindutva violence waged on Indian Muslims, sanctioned by the BJP”. She appears to have ignored entirely the rabid Islamists who incited the violence and engaged in an organized campaign of vandalism against Hindu-owned property and the murder of Hindus including policemen and Intelligence Bureau officials.
Don’t label the Delhi Pogrom as “clashes” and “protest”.
Call it what it is: sustained and systemic Hindutva violence waged on Indian Muslims, sanctioned by the BJP.
The Minister’s response? “Protest is a legitimate means of raising issues.” pic.twitter.com/ge8DwaiSgR
— Nadia Whittome MP (@NadiaWhittomeMP) March 3, 2020
A member of Jeremy Corbyn’s faction within the Labour Party, Whittome has also embarked upon a slander campaign against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. She claimed that the RSS had contributed “absolutely nothing to the independence struggle” while “people like my grandfather risked their lives fighting for Indian independence”. Furthermore, she claimed that “They are not only continuing colonialism through the BJP, but now call themselves anti-colonialists.”
Whittome’s opinions appear consistent with that of the politician she adores, Jeremy Corbyn. The far-Left Labour leader had led the party to its worst General Elections defeat in decades that gifted Boris Johnson’s Tories a resounding majority on its own in the British Parliament. Her politics appear to be consistent with that of her grandparents, who belonged to the Communist Party of India.
The Corbynite faction of the Labour Party can be roughly compared to the Bernie Sanders-inspired Justice Democrats in the United States, which consists of Congresswomen such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib among others. The Justice Democrats, who are socialists, wanted to kill ‘farting cows’ as part of their Green New Deal, an effort to stop the supposed impending climate change apocalypse. They are currently at war against the Moderate Democrats in the US, who are quite Far-Left in their own outlook, represented by Joe Biden in the Presidential Race.
Whittome, personally, was a pro-Remain candidate in the ‘Brexit’ General Elections in 2019 while her party’s stand on the matter was never quite clear. Leaders like her are a large part of the reason why the Labour Party suffered such a catastrophic defeat. A great section of the electorate saw the stand of the party as a great betrayal of the Democratic results of the Brexit Referendum and switched over to the Tories who promise to ‘Get Brexit Done’.
The young leader had said about Britain’s exit from the European Union, “Brexit is a threat to the jobs and livelihoods of people in Nottingham, to migrants, to our rights, the NHS, and our planet. As a hate crime worker, I see first-hand the rise of the far-right, which feeds itself off deprivation, disenfranchisement, and a sense of abandonment by the political establishment. I support a fresh referendum and I will campaign to stay in Europe – at the same time bringing the country together by tackling poverty and inequality, and giving people control over their lives.”
The story of Whittome’s rise to power resembles closely with that of AOC’s who was a bartender before she became a Congresswoman. Whittome told The Guardian in January, “It does feel really odd that, not very long ago, I was looking for Christmas temp work – got rejected from a lot of Christmas temp work – and now I’m a member of parliament.” She also scoffs at the idea that young people need more experience before becoming MPs, which is natural given the fact that she was elected to the House of Commons at the age of 23. Her opinions about the Delhi Riots, too, are consistent with AOC’s who had lied about Muslims being ethnically cleansed in India.
With regards to India, Whittome’s opinions are not of place with that of the humiliated Corbyn and her animosity towards the Indian Government appears consistent with that of other members of the party. Following the abrogation of Article 370, the Labour Party had passed a resolution that called for “international intervention in Kashmir” and demanded a UN led-referendum.
After the Indian diaspora registered its offence, the party backtracked on its resolution fearing the loss of votes in the looming General Elections. A Pakistani mob led by a Labour MP had also attacked the Indian High Commission following India’s action on Kashmir. The mob included other Labour MPs as well. The anti-India stand did not appear to end well with the party as it descended into a catastrophe in the General Elections.
Whittome was born to a Punjabi Sikh father, who emigrated to the United Kingdom when he was 21, and an Anglo-Indian Catholic Mother who emigrated from Kolkata in the 1950s. While she claims that her grandfather fought against the Colonial British for Indian Independence, her actions are completely at the polar ends of the spectrum. Her words reflect a desire for British interference in the internal matters of India. However, she appears to have missed the memo that India freed itself from British rule in 194 and is under no obligation whatsoever to care about what she and people like her have to say about Indian internal matters.
Given her stance on the internal affairs of India, Whittome’s claim that the RSS is continuing ‘colonialism’ appear rather ironic. However, it is consistent with the claims of far-left hacks in India such as Arundhati Roy who describe India as a colonial power. The BJP is an Indian political party and the Indian Government was democratically elected by the Indian electorate. Therefore, her claims of the BJP being a colonial power appears rather ironic given the heritage of her own country.
