Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address, Prime Minister Modi launched a scathing attack on the economic policies of the previous Congress governments on Thursday (6th February). Taking a dig at the Gandhi family, PM Modi held it responsible for the economic mismanagement in the country. “Because of economic mismanagement and bad policies of the Royal Family, the entire society was defamed and declared guilty,” said the Prime Minister.
दिल्ली: प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने कहा, "शाही परिवार के आर्थिक कुप्रबंधन और गलत नीतियों के कारण पूरे समाज को दुनिया भर में दोषी ठहराया गया और बदनाम किया गया…"
He said that in India, there was no ‘Licenseraj’ or ‘permit culture’ and free trade was always encouraged. “If we look at Indian history, there was no license raj or permit culture in India. For centuries, the people of India believed in free trade. We were among the first communities in the world to believe in free trade in the world”, he said. “Centuries ago, Indian traders travelled across countries for trade. There were no restrictions on cross-border trade. This was our nature and culture but we destroyed it,” he added.
Why PM Modi held Congress responsible for the poor economy of the country
PM Modi blamed the previous Congress governments for the poor economy of the country during the crucial years after independence. It was the Congress that formed government after independence with Jawaharlal Nehru becoming the first Prime Minister of the country. Nehru, a socialist to the core, made such flawed policies that the country remained on the edge of a food crisis. Nehru and the subsequent Congress governments did not encourage entrepreneurship and kept everything, from hotels to banks, under government control which hindered the economic progress of the country leading to red-tapism.
To justify the crawling economic growth of the country during the 1950s and 1980s which was a result of the poor economic policies of the government, the term ‘Hindu rate of growth’ was coined by Marxist economist Raj Krishna blaming the Hindu community for the poor economic growth rate. During this period, the Indian economy grew by just 3.5% on average. For some reason, this rate was named after Hindus.
This is an intrinsically flawed notion because the entire Indian history of the last thousand years bears testimony to the wealth and prosperity of this country. Prior to the Islamic and British invasions, when Indian society was predominantly Hindu, trade and commerce flourished on this land. The country was the hub of global trade. The wealth and prosperity of the country were the reason that greedy invaders attacked this land. India’s economy declined after the repeated attacks and loot by Muslim invaders and then British colonisation.
PM Modi implied that by coining the term ‘Hindu rate of growth’ for India’s slow GDP growth, the Congress maligned the name of the entire Hindu community. He stated that while the slow growth rate was the result of mismanagement of the ruling by the Nehru-Gandhi family, the entire Hindu community was held responsible and maligned in the entire world.
The PM said that the slow growth of the Indian economy after independence was the result of the licence-permit raj during Congress governments, but the Congress party blamed an entire community by naming the slow growth rate after Hindus.
Many argue that the ‘Hindu Rate of Growth’ should actually be called the ‘Nehru Rate of Growth’, because the slow growth was essentially the result of his policies. Nehru wanted that govt should run every business, and private industry was stalled by putting limit on their production through licence and permit system.
Nehruvian policies were also carried forward by his daughter Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi nationalised sectors like banking, textiles, coal, steel, copper etc. Due to this, the country had to bear the brunt of this ‘Nehru growth rate’ for many decades.
Therefore, PM Modi said that the royal family brought disrepute to India and to the Hindus on the global stage.
Netflix has recently released a web series titled ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ starring Kaitlyn Dever as Belle Gibson, the woman who faked having cancer to become an Instagram influencer. The film is inspired by real events around how an Australian woman Belle Gibson claimed in 2013 that she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain cancer with only four months to live and how she cured herself using natural therapies and diet. It, however, turned out eventually that Gibson was telling a compelling lie.
Belle Gibson launched her Instagram account with the username @healing_belle in 2013. She claimed to have been diagnosed with inoperable cancer and how she overcame the same through a healthy diet etc. She began sharing those healthy recipes on her account and amassed thousands of followers. Belle Gibson used to share updates on how she was coping with her health condition which she claimed was due to a negative reaction to the Gardasil HPV vaccine, taking her followers for a ride. Belle Gibson also claimed that she nearly died during a medical procedure and that her cancer spread to her spleen, liver uterus and blood.
In no time, Gibson’s story became an inspiration, she solidified her position as a wellness expert, landed a book deal and even launched her own wellness application The Whole Pantry. Back in 2014, she was awarded Cosmopolitan’s Fun Fearless Female title. Similarly, Elle Australia called Gibson the ‘most inspiring woman you’ve met this year’.
While her cookbook was to be launched in US and UK bookstores in 2015, some Australian journalists began digging into Gibson and found that her inspiring and emotional story was nothing but a bunch of lies convincingly told and foolishly believed by the people. Meanwhile, several charities to whom Gibson pledged thousands of dollars revealed that they never received a single penny from the wellness influencer.
Soon after, Belle Gibson appeared in an interview with an Australian news outlet and admitted to having concocted a fake story. “None of it is true,” she said back then. This, unsurprisingly triggered severe backlash from people who believed her lies and followed her.
Later, Gibson appeared in 60 Minutes Australia and said, “I didn’t trade in on my story or in other people’s lives. I’m not trying to get away with anything.”
As her lies were getting exposed, Apple withdrew Gibson’s wellness app from the Apple Play Store and Apple Watch. Her book was pulled back and her business was shut. Gibson had multiple lawsuits against her making false claims of donating money to charities. She was further fined by a federal court judge for deliberately deceiving cancer patients. Till 2019, she claimed to not be in a position to pay the fines and in 2020 she reportedly joined an Ethiopian community and called South Africa her “home”. As of now, her whereabouts are unknown.
Describing the premise of the six-episode series based on Belle Gibson’s fake story, Netflix said, “Set during the early days of Instagram, Apple Cider Vinegar follows two young women who set out to cure their life-threatening illnesses through health and wellness, influencing their global online communities along the way. All of which would be incredibly inspiring if it were all true. As we’ve since learned, it’s often impossible to tell what’s real and what isn’t on social media, even when it comes to the most serious subjects.”
Netflix stated that the series is inspired by the 2017 book The Woman Who Fooled the World by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano.
The controversial United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is facing the blunt end of the Trump administration’s ire. The agency has its senior officials sent on leave, contractors fired and foreign funding activities restricted. One after the other, it has been revealed how the US government’s ‘wallet with a mission’ squanders US taxpayer’s money on dubious entities even terrorist organisations in a direct or indirect fashion all to promote ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’. USAID was also funding at least major left-leaning media, outlets all of whom claimed to be ‘independent’ actually took money from the US govt.
Politico, a left-leaning media which back in 2023 defended the Trudeau administration in Canada for honouring a Nazi in its parliament, received a whopping $8.2 million from USAID via 237 transactions over the years. The top US government agencies that awarded funds to Politico were the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce (DOC).
In the year 2016, the funding to Politico LLC skyrocketed from 1 new award to 80 in 2024 and 4 in the fiscal year 2025 until the USAID came under the scanner and the Trump administration announced a halt on government funding to the left-leaning media outlet. Notably, the rapid increase in funding to Politico was recorded when the Biden administration held the reins of power in the United States.
To no surprise, two former Politico writers recently accused the publication of suppressing negative news about Joe Biden and his family, particularly in the context of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.
On 5th February, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Politico and several other media houses received funding from USAID to subsidise subscriptions using American taxpayers’ money, however, she said that this practice will stop now. Leavitt added that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is working towards cancelling those payments.
“I was made aware that USAID has funded media outlets like Politico who I know have a seat in this room. I can confirm that the more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers’ dime will no longer be happening. The DOGE team is working on cancelling those payments now,” the White House spokeswoman said.
Press Secretary Leavitt calls out Politico to their face.
“I was made aware of funding from USAID to Media Outlets…including Politico…who I know has a seat in this room. The $8M you receive ends today. The DOGE Team is cancelling those payments now…” pic.twitter.com/s3xiy2h87F
New York Times, Associated Press and other left-leaning media outlets received funds from USAID
Besides Politico, The New York Times, a major left-leaning media outlet that a record of batting for Democrats, romanticising Khalistani terrorists, downplaying Islamist violence against Hindus in Bangladesh and eulogising anti-Hindu violence accused Islamists like Umar Khalid in India, received more than $350,000 per year since 2022 and millions since the year 2008.
Some social media users including one Ian Miles Cheong claimed that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was the largest contributor to the NYT, granting $26.9 million, while the National Science Foundation followed with $19.15 million. They further claimed that in August 2024 alone, the US government provided $4.1 million to The New York Times under the Biden administration.
The US Government gave the New York Times tens of millions of dollars over just the past 5 years despite paying relatively little money to the NYT in the years preceding 2021. For instance, in August 2024, the US government awarded $4.1 million to the NYT.
As OpIndia checked the official data for all fiscal years for New York Times Co, it received $2.5 million from 266 transactions. The Department of Defense with obligations of $567,082 was the top awarding agency followed by the Treasury Department with obligations to the tune of $5,41,483.
In the trailing 12 months, the media outlet received about $378,266 from 18 transactions. The New York Times received its highest funding under the Biden administration. The Department of Defense with obligations to the tune of $201198 followed by the Treasury Department with obligations of $75,012 were the top contributors to New York Times Co.
Not to forget, NYT has persistently been pushing a pro-Ukraine, anti-Trump narrative while also villainising Elon Musk. Amusingly, NYT had also endorsed democrat candidate Kamala Harris in the last presidential elections in the US wherein Harris suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Donald Trump.
Interestingly, the former owner of The Washington Post, Graham Holdings Company received over $968.1 million in government funding since 2008 with the Department of Education being its top contributor. It must be noted that Graham Holdings Company owns several television local news stations in the United States and the left leaning Foreign Policy magazine which platforms Islamists to peddle Muslim victimhood propaganda in India. Unsurprisingly, Foreign Policy is one of the prominent news outlets seething over Trump administration’s crackdown on USAID.
Another ‘independent’ news outlet that received federal funding is The Associated Press. The left leaning news outlet received $619,968 from 13 transactions in the trailing 12 months with the Department of State (DOS) being the top contributor making up to 87.45% of the funds awarded.
The total amount awarded to The Associated Press since 2008 stood at $37.5 million.
Among the other major media houses that received federal funding over the years was Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters Special Services LLC which is the parent recipient, was awarded a whopping $120.3 million from 239 transactions. The Department of Defense with obligations of $60.21 million was the top awarding federal agency followed by Department of Homeland Security.
Meanwhile, in the trailing 12 months Thomson Reuters Special Services LLC received $13.6 million from 28 transactions.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg is also among the top recipients of federal funding. According to the official data, Bloomberg LP received $208,418 from 12 transactions in the trailing 12 months while it has since 2008 received $6.4 million with the Department of the Treasury, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and Department of State (DOS) being top five awarding agencies.
During our search, we came across the recipient profile of Bloomberg LP (parent recipient) and found that the company received $233.9 million from 4,281 transactions since 2008.
In addition to this, Bloomberg’s subsidiary Bloomberg Finance LP received federal funding of $20 million in the trailing 12 months and $156.1 million in all fiscal years since 2008 with numbers being the highest under the Biden administration. Besides, Bloomberg Industry Group, INC received $15.8 million from 173 transactions in the trailing 12 months.
Other than Bloomberg, Dow Jones & Company which owns The Wall Street Journal and is a subsidiary of News Corp is also among the major recipients of the US federal funding. The company has continuously been receiving significant funding since 2008, the highest transactions were recorded in the years 2022, 2023 and 2024. In the trailing 12 months alone, Dow Jones & Company received $969,872 from 25 transactions.
Meanwhile, Comcast Corporation (parent recipient) which owns NBC News, received $573.7 million from 31,297 transactions. The transactions peaked in the year 2022 with obligations standing at $233.5 million and 2231 new awards.
National Public Broadcaster (NPR) has also received federal funding, however, the amounts are way too less compared to other left-leaning legacy media outlets.
Interestingly, the US government had also been interested in funding entities with links to media houses in foreign countries. The USAID previously funded BBC Media Action, a British Broadcasting Corporation-linked charity. The charitable arm of BBC which claims to support journalism and communication projects in underdeveloped regions is reported to have received £2.6 million from USAID in 2023-24.
Upon checking official data, OpIndia found that in the trailing 12 months, BBC Media Action received $2.8 million from 7 transactions with USAID being its top awarding agency in the United States followed by the Department of State. Overall, since 2008, BBC Media Action has received $17.3 million from 49 transactions of which the highest were made during the years 2013, 2016, 2021, 2023 and 2024.
While it is true that BBC Media Action and BBC News are not the same, a British charity affiliated to the United Kingdom’s public service broadcaster receiving massive funding from a US agency using US taxpayers’ money making it one of the top donors is in itself quite problematic. While Trump supporters view this as a wastage of government funds, the left liberals who dub USAID as the country’s ‘soft power’ continue to defend it. However, the editorial independence of those media trained by BBC Media Action remains questionable since it is not too unlikely that the US government funded the charity keeping its own policy interests and objectives in consideration.
Interestingly, USAID also funded a Pakistani “policy research and advocacy” initiative Media Matters for Democracy. The MMFD Trust received $603,686 from 14 transactions in all fiscal years since 2008 with the US Department of State being its top awarding agency.
With USAID coming under scanner, a pandora’s box opened and the veneer of ‘independent’ media that the USA’s leftist news outlets donned for so long has finally fallen off. While they may put forth arguments like those funds were for subsidised subscriptions, research and so on it is apparent that the self-proclaimed ‘independents’ too have overlords. Taking into account the kind of coverage NYT, Associated Press and other media outlets funded by US federal agencies including USAID did during the recent US Presidential elections behaving like the propaganda machinery of the Democratic Party with pathological limerence for Kamala Harris and disdain towards Donald Trump, it is not surprising that some of these outlets received highest federal funding under Biden administration.
In fact, when media outlets receive federal funding their editorial independence is compromised and as seen in the case of Politico wherein its former journalist said that several stories about Hunter Biden were killed, self-censorship also comes into play. A truly independent media cannot be both, a government watchdog and its financial benefactor. Apparently, this is why the American people are outraged, and rightly so.
The legacy media in the US has in the recent past been receiving flak from the American people for its sheer bias against the right wing, especially Trump and his supporters while functioning as coolies of the Democrat Party and the propaganda machinery for the liberal-woke cabal. The recent revelations of the so-called ‘independent’ and ‘unbiased’ media outlets being funded by federal agencies make one wonder if the media is actually independent.
USAID and its anti-India propaganda
OpIndia has time and again highlighted how the USAID has been attempting to interfere in India’s internal matters. It had attempted to bring about a ‘colour revolution’ in India through its affiliates. We recently published a deep dive on USAID’s 96-page propaganda guide meant to help the USAID team peddle influence in foreign countries, co-opt the media ecosystem and civil society and bring about ‘regime change’ in the host nation. All of this was shrewdly framed as an effort to combat ‘information disorder.’ It is a common trait of the left-liberals across the world to hide behind high-sounding terms like democracy, diversity, freedom, combating disinformation and whatnot while the real intent is to topple governments not ideology aligned with them.
Notably, the USAID backed fake news peddlers and known Modi/BJP detractors like Rana Ayyub, it promoted Atlantic Council that attacked Modi government and also collaborated with far-left billionaire George Soros during the Obama administration to promote its ‘radical agendas’ in several countries including India.
Despite not being a go-to source of information and news US-based media outlets funded by USAID or who have been recipients of federal funding in the recent past. The coverage of the NYT, Associated Press, Bloomberg and other such outlets on events like the protests against the CAA-NRC or the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi verdict, India’s attempts to deport illegal immigrants, or its strict stand against Khalistani secessionism, Islamic terrorism and villainization of Prime Minister Narendra Modi labelling him as Hindu ‘fascist dictator’ and whatnot, reflects their ideological bias. The US federal agencies financially backing such biased media houses reflects its support to the way these media outlets function or rather has been using its media as tools for narrative shaping on foreign soil.
The United States government’s international assistance, humanitarian relief, and development arm, USAID (the United States Agency for International Development), is in massive trouble. During the course of a few weeks under Donald Trump’s presidency, much of the agency was dismantled, its website went offline, the officials and staff encountered furloughs, firings and disciplinary leaves.
Notably, the agency’s work was halted, and transactions were frozen. Lawmakers claimed that USAID’s computer servers were taken away. Further elaborating on his plans, Trump also stated that closing down USAID “should have been done a long time ago.” He has referred to it as a component of the “deep state” and his administration recently provided information on the “ridiculous” initiatives that the agency funded over the years. However, USAID is under fire for its much darker purpose.
USAID’s influence was evident in its attempts to install puppet governments under the banner of revolution and democracy in nations such as Ukraine and Bangladesh. It cultivated close ties with radical leftist billionaire George Soros, who is notorious for his role in facilitating regime changes around the world. USAID even had connections with infamous purveyors of disinformation.
Moreover, the agency which is now facing the criticism of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) supremo Elon Musk exerted extra efforts to topple the Modi government and set up a favourable administration. USAID had its hands in every pot but its most alarming involvement pertained to its financial support and relationships with multiple Islamist and terrorist organisations.
USAID funds Pakistan-based terrorism and extremism in South Asia
As per reports, USAID provided assistance to an anti-Indian outfit that the US government has designated as a terrorist organization. It funded the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) based in Pakistan. The 26/11 assaults in Mumbai, which left 166 people dead and over 300 injured, were carried out by LeT. The Pakistani terrorists brutally murdered their victims, including six Americans. More shockingly, USAID continued to offer support to the foundation in spite of being under investigation for doing the same.
Hafiz Saeed collecting donations for Falah-e Insaniyat Foundation. (Source: RFE/RL)
Both India and the United States labeled the LeT and its front Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) as terrorist organizations as they executed attacks and encouraged terrorism in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir. The use of American public funds to support an organization that the US government outlawed in 2010 was a striking example of the contradictions and hypocrisy inherent in the nation’s foreign policy.
A US State Department document, banning the outfit read, “The FIF is a Pakistan-based organisation that is closely connected to banned terrorist group LeT and its humanitarian front Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD). In essence, FIF is JUD with a new name, designed to evade scrutiny and sanctions,” and linked it to the 2008 Mumbai attacks. USAID, which handled more than half of US foreign aid, was conveniently unaware that its own government outlawed FIF.
A Muslim organization “Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD),” located in Michigan with connections to jihadist groups active in South Asia was the conduit for the aid. Established in 2005, HHRD claims to be “a global humanitarian relief and development organization responding to human suffering in emergency and disaster situations around the world.”
The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the American branch of the violent South Asian extremist group Jamaat-e-Islami, has an overseas relief arm named “Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD).” In 2017, the Middle East Forum unveiled that HHRD had collaborated with the political and philanthropic branches of Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba to host a seminar at a government-run college in Pakistan. These results triggered an investigation by USAID’s Inspector General as well as many congressional probes.
Image via meforum.org
The Al-Khidmat Foundation is its primary partner in Pakistan and the two came together at least 214 times. The former declared that it had financed its “just Jihad” by “presenting a cheque of six-million rupees from the people of Pakistan to Khaled Meshaal, head of the politburo Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas),” in 2006. ICNA has already “linked to the websites of Hamas, Hezbollah, and terrorist organizations fighting in Chechnya, Afghanistan, and the Pakistani-Indian disputed region of Kashmir,” according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
The Islamic Society in Gaza, which publicly bragged about its ties to Hamas, was one of the Islamic charities on its short list of suggested groups. ICNA conference speakers have also called for violence against Jews. These speakers have even included Muhammad Siyam, a senior Hamas member, who spoke at the group’s 1990 convention alongside Khurshid Ahmed, the deputy leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. The Unlimited Friends Association is a partner of HHRD in Gaza.
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Amjad Taha, an expert on strategic and political affairs of the Middle East expressed, “USAID funded HHRD, a Michigan-based Islamist charity with ties to jihadist groups, including Pakistan’s Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, a US-designated terrorist organisation involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.” According to him, USAID funded extremist groups in South Asia, notably the FIF, which targeted India, with a staggering $110,000. He added, “When exposed, they merely launched an internal investigation.”
Did you know that USAID provided $110,000 in funding to jihadist groups in South Asia, including one that targeted India? When exposed, they merely launched an internal investigation. USAID funded HHRD, a Michigan-based Islamist charity with ties to jihadist groups, including…
The US-based Islamist nonprofit was accused of granting financing to terrorist groups in 2019, if not before. It was only reported last year that an investigation was conducted in 2021 into the USAID payment of $110,000 to HHRD. The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Chairman, Michael T. McCaul, wrote to USAID Administrator Samantha Power in 2023 to draw attention to the agency’s indirect backing of terrorist groups.
“In October 2021, USAID awarded $110,000 to Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD) through the Ocean Freight Reimbursement Program. This award was made despite longstanding, detailed allegations that HHRD is connected to designated terrorist organizations, terror financiers, and extremist groups,” he stated. According to the letter, three members of Congress publicly encouraged the State Department to look into these suspected affiliations with terrorism, in November 2019.
Furthermore, he demanded that the NGO’s financing be stopped until these accusations had been thoroughly examined. However, another cash tranche of $7300 was awarded to HHRD by USAID under the Biden administration in 2023. “This isn’t about shutting down USAID but about holding accountable the staff who made this happen. Which department are they in now? How are they serving Islamists? Which charity or school are they operating today,” Amjad Taha questioned.
Bayader Association for Environment and Development, Gaza
The Bayader Association for Environment and Development, a jihadist charity in Gaza, received more than $900,000 from USAID since 2016. On 1st October 2023, just six days prior to the 7th October Hamas onslaught, which resulted in the massacre of over 1,200 Israelis, USAID bestowed Bayader with its most recent grant. A few months prior, in February 2023, Bayader, in partnership with Islamic Relief, a Western Islamist charity and another former USAID grantee, hosted a meeting with top Hamas officials in the Gazan city of Khan Yunis.
Senior Hamas officials, including Abdul Salam Haniyeh, the son of the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, one of the individuals behind the 7th October massacre, were embraced by Bayader workers during the ceremony. Bayader was established in 2007, just after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, and it works closely with the terrorist government. “Coordination” and “meetings” with Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Social Affairs, and Ministry of Agriculture are mentioned in its 2021 annual report.
Image via meforum.org
Other Hamas terror politicians are frequently spotted with Bayader officials. Its Ministry of Public Works announced in March 2023 that it was in favor of Bayader’s endeavors to construct public infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Additionally, Bayader touts of its USAID assistance in its advertisements in Hamas media and its officials openly encourage terrorism. Abd Rabbo Saeed Abu Haddaf, the finance director of the charity, expressed public sorrow at the passing of Ahmed Abu Deka of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, calling him a “brother and friend.” The latter was the deputy commander of the rocket forces of the Al-Quds Brigades.
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Similarly, Bayader “project coordinator” Ahlam Jama, who previously worked for US non-governmental organizations like “Mercy Corps” and the “Catholic Relief Services” published content lamenting the passing of another Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, Baha Abu al-Ata. Federal spending data demonstrated that Bayader is a USAID sub-grantee. Government funds are initially disbursed through a sponsoring US NGO, which is supposedly obligated to screen its sub-grantees.
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American entities including the “International Medical Corps,” “Global Communities,” and “Catholic Relief Services” are among the US non-profits that were able to receive USAID money for Bayader. However, USAID also worked directly with it and its officials lauded Bayader’s efforts on social media. They paid a visit to the organization’s offices and Jonathan Kamin, a senior official, even accepted an award from the fanatic group.
American Near East Refugee Agency (ANERA)
ANERA also known as American Near East Refugee Aid is one of the biggest American non-profits working in the Palestinian territories. It was established in 1968, shortly after the Six-Day War and now runs projects in Lebanon and Jordan. ANERA claimed more than $170 million in revenue on its 2022 tax returns. One of its largest donors USAID had authorized tens of millions of dollars in transfers to the organization throughout the previous years, consisting of a $12.5 million grant in 2024.
For decades, the charity has been accused in multiple media stories and research works of aiding radicals associated with the designated terrorist organization Hamas, while being a significant partner of the government and numerous foreign institutions. Bayader has been a longtime supporter of ANERA. The Unlimited Friends Association, also identified as a Hamas proxy group that aims to provide cash handouts to the “families of martyrs” in Gaza and spreads strongly anti-Semitic rhetoric on its social media pages, has also been funded by ANERA through USAID funds.
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It has a history of such collaborations. An ANERA report from 2000 revealed an alliance with the Ihsan Society, which the US government subsequently deemed as a Hamas front in 2005. “USAID continues to fund multimillion-dollar programs through American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), which is building a high-tech facility” for the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), according to a 2007 Washington Times article. Sheikh Yassin, the chairman of Hamas, founded the institution which remains a significant Hamas outpost. According to ANERA’s 2005 report, the organization was trying to raise $900,000 for a single project at the university.
Notably, Inspector General’s office at USAID conducted an audit and discovered that the agency had miserably failed in its vetting tasks as the agency funded its activities with IUG and other institutions. Money sent through ANERA to the Palestinian territories was reportedly “used to support Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) kindergartens that actively indoctrinate children in hatred and killing of Israeli civilians, as well as other PIJ and Hamas organizations, thus enabling them to finance terrorist activity, which is forbidden by US law,” per a 2017 Israel Law Center report.
ANERA’s top officials did not denounce the open expression of violent beliefs by its staff. Its “logistics coordinator,” Mousa Shawwa, supported a social media appeal for God to “erase the Jews” in 2014. Esma Marwa, an employee of ANERA, expressed joy at learning that the “head of a rotten Jew” was injured. She cautioned Palestinians that sharing images of their “martyrs” only benefits the “Jews.” Meanwhile, Ibrahim Zanoun, the photographer for ANERA in Gaza tweeted to warn that Hamas would “soon broadcast a video threatening the Jews” and commended the group for its “resistance.”
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Ibrahim Najjar, another employee of ANERA, posted images of the terrorist commander and Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin. He also voiced support for the “brave prisoners” in Israeli prisons. Sandra Rasheed, the Palestine Director for ANERA is a clear supporter of radical action, even though it bills itself as a “non-partisan organization.” She supports student protesters on campuses, encourages radical far-Left organizations to take direct action and posts meaningless agitprop on social media that promises resistance by “land, by air and by sea – by any means and in any conditions.”
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Other ANERA personnel liked the cryptic words that its agricultural programs manager, Naser Qadous posted indicating endorsement for 7th October Hamas strikes. Later, he posted propaganda from Hamas regarding its handling of Israeli hostages. The ANERA official claimed that one hostage, who was depicted with armed terrorists, had only been a “guest.” Mohamed Alsayed, the previous national coordinator of ANERA in Lebanon (who now identifies himself as the organization’s “youth sports coordinator”), praised the 7th October attacks as well, branding the day of the pogrom as a “beautiful morning.”
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Unlimited Friends Association
The building of a “USAID-funded Unlimited Friends Association (UFA) educational and community center in Gaza” is celebrated in a USAID August 2022 “news update.” ANERA with operations around the Middle East, “built” the center, based on USAID. UFA actively promotes highly anti-Semitic language on its social media platforms and has ties to senior Hamas leaders. It held events to gather money for “the families of martyrs and prisoners.” Cash distributions are a part of its “Orphan Sponsorship Program.” The children of those killed while opposing “the ongoing slaughter against the Palestinian people” were included in UFA’s definition of orphans in its video, however, they were deleted afterward.
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Such efforts are conducted in open cooperation with Hamas. Prominent Hamas leaders like Mustafa Sawwaf, who contendd that Israel’s disappearance is “a necessity (according to) the Koran,” and Mohamed Abu-Shkian, a senior Hamas commander who hailed the “strikes of the mujahideen” and assembles ceremonies in Gaza that glorify killed terrorists, have been invited to the groups offices and events.
Furthermore, UFA boasts a certificate of support from Ummah University, an institution in Gaza under the direct administration of “Interior Ministry” of Hamas and publicly promotes initiatives financed by American charities in well-known Hamas publications. Several Hamas-affiliated media channels, notably Felesteen actual, the terrorist outfit’s daily newspaper, reported employment openings at UFA in 2022, however, these reports were not advertisement but rather actual articles.
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“We ask God to drive away the anguish of the heroic prisoners in the Nazi Zionist jails and to free Al-Aqsa Al-Sharif from the filth of the most dirty Jews,” the charity wrote in a social media post in 2013. UFA officials use similar language. Its director Jomaa Khadoura prayed for God to “cleanse Al-Aqsa from the impurity of the Jews” on his personal Facebook page in April 2021. According to USAID, the agency funded UFA and “ANERA built the educational and community center in Gaza.”
ANERA claims on its website that because its “local staff evaluates our partners,” it ensures that sure money don’t end up in “parties like Hamas.” However, as mentioned earlier, these same employees use virulently anti-Semitic language. Other USAID-supported American nonprofits, such as Islamic Relief and Helping Hand for Relief and Development, also provide support to UFA in addition to the direct funds provided by USAID for its operations.
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Islamic Relief
The main charity run by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood alias Ikhwan Al-Muslimeen, is entitled Islamic Relief which was founded in the United Kingdom. With branches, offices and affiliations in more than 40 countries, the latter is one of the leading financial institutions worldwide. It was created by prominent Muslim Brotherhood members and continues to bw operated by notable Islamist activists which resulted in bans and blacklistings in several Arab and European nations. The US branch generates over $100 million in income annually, making it one of its richest franchises.
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Despite its obvious ties to terrorism, USAID authorized $2 million in support for 2 chapters of Islamic Relief. The latter frequently partnered with senior terrorist figures in Gaza in 2022, including Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas politburo. He declared that Hamas would carry out the 7th October strikes “time and again until Israel is annihilated” a few weeks later following the mass killings. Islamic Relief started a project in Khan Yunis of Gaza, in February 2023. Islamic Relief Palestine and the Bayader Association for Environment & Development spearheaded the project, which was financed with $200,000 from Islamic Relief’s Dutch branch.
The project was planned in close coordination with the Hamas leadership and the Khan Yunis municipality, which is under Hamas authority. As stated in the Bayader description above, key Hamas members, including Abdul Salam Haniyeh, a senior Hamas government official and the son of its leader late Ismail Haniyeh, accompanied Islamic Relief official Muneeb Abu Ghazaleh at the venture’s opening ceremony. Islamic Relief frequently denies association with designated terrorist groups, which is contradicted by their close liaison with Hamas officials.
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“In the past decade more than 500 audits of our programmes have been conducted, in many cases mandated by governments and other institutional donors. Not one has found a shred of evidence of links to extremism or terrorism, and that includes more than 20 audits in the West Bank and Gaza,” Islamic Relief official Naser Haghamed alleged in the Guardian in 2020.
Many have been left perplexed regarding the precise nature of these audits as it quite clear that the charity has long supported terrorism and extremism. In an interview with Hamas’s official radio station in Gaza in 2016, Hany El-Banna, the founder of Islamic Relief, called for strong cooperation between charities and the Hamas “government.” According to El-Banna, Islamic Relief and the Gaza Zakat Committee (IZS) have collaborated extensively throughout the years. IZS is a significant Hamas charity organization that regularly hosts events with key Hamas officials and refers to its members as “soldiers for Jerusalem” on its website.
The Al-Falah Benevolent Society in Gaza, which is dubbed by journalists as a “complementary arm of the (Hamas) government” and identified by intelligence experts as one of “charitable societies of Hamas” also long received money from Islamic Relief branches. Meanwhile, employees of the Gaza office of Islamic Relief publicly exhibit support for Hamas leaders by saying things such as “I ask god to paralyze the pillars of the Jews and cut their legs and paralyze their hands,” and “O Muslim, O servant of Allah, behind me a Jew. Come and kill him.”
In 2017, the Middle East Forum uncovered that Khaled Lamada, a member of Islamic Relief’s US branch, shared texts that praised the “jihad” of the “Mujahidin” for “causing the Jews many defeats” on social media. He also reposted statements on Facebook that hailed Hamas for delivering a “huge defeat” against the “Zionist entity.” A different worker Yousef Abdullah uploaded anti-Semitic comments, including celebrating the murder of Jews.
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Other extreme groups have also used Islamic Relief branches as intermediaries. For example, the British headquarters of Islamic Relief have revealed millions of dollars in revenue from dozens of terror-affiliated groups, including the Charitable Society for Social Welfare, which was launched by Abdul Majeed Al-Zindani, an Al-Qaeda terrorist and Osama bin Laden supporter as well as subsidiaries of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf.
The Berlin federal government voiced concerns about Islamic Relief Deutschland and the franchise’s United Kingdom parent organization, Islamic Relief Worldwide, in 2019. It was in response to lawmakers from Germany’s centrist “Free Democratic Party” which conveyed that both had “significant ties” to the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile, the US State Department warned “blatant and horrifying anti-Semitism and glorification of violence exhibited at the most senior levels of Islamic Relief Worldwide” in 2020.
Following a media uproar in 2021 over Islamic Relief Netherlands being one of the beneficiaries of a government grant program worth 825 million euros, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation announced that Islamic Relief was excluded from the funding after being confirmed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe adhering to discussions with the German government and security services.
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During the Obama and early Trump administrations, in addition to the federal money provided to Islamic Relief branches, USAID and Islamic Relief collaborated to host events, such as an iftar at the agnecy for the charity’s staff. The State Department placed at least one branch of Islamic Relief on a blacklist during the first Trump administration in 2020, pointing to the “blatant and horrifying anti-Semitism and glorification of violence exhibited at the most senior levels of Islamic Relief Worldwide.” Nonetheless, the work of other branches of Islamic Relief have been promoted by USAID and US embassies.
Islamic Relief Agency (and World Vision)
The popular international evangelical charity “World Vision International,” which also has a branch in India, received $723,405 from USAID in 2014 to “improve water, sanitation, and hygiene and to increase food security in Sudan’s Blue Nile state.” The Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), a sub-grantee, was to receive $200,000 of the amount. However, ISRA has been and continues to be designated as a terror group.
Due to its ties to Osama bin Laden and his group Maktab al-Khidamat (MK), the forerunner of al-Qaeda, the United States labeled the Khartoum-based outfit as a terror-financing organization in 2004. The US Treasury stated that ISRA and MK formally began working together in 1997. The former had raised $5 million for bin Laden’s organization by the year 2000. According to the Treasury Department, ISRA agents even attempted to assist in “relocating (bin Laden) to secure and safe location.” Additionally, it stated that ISRA raised money in Western Europe in 2003 with the express purpose of funding Hamas suicide bombers.
All of ISRA’s branches consisting of the Islamic American Relief Agency in the United States, were included in the 2004 categorization. It eventually came to light that this American branch had unlawfully sent more than $1.2 million to terrorist organizations, including the Afghan terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, as well as Iraqi rebels. It appeared that World Vision and USAID were cognizant of ISRA’s terrorist activites. A board member and the executive director of ISRA’s US branch entered guilty pleas to a number of offenses in 2010, comprising conspiracy, theft of public funds and money laundering. The plea was posted on the official USAID website.
Former Congressman Mark Siljander, who frequently visited Sudan and signed public statements written and supported by World Vision, was imprisoned in 2012 for lobbying for ISRA’s US branch with funds that had been stolen from USAID. Nevertheless, USAID gave the money to ISRA through World Vision without probing its sub-grantees. The process was only halted after a whistleblower compelled World Vision to speak with USAID about its partner’s placement on the US terror list. Desperate, World Vision tried to get around the ban on terror links.
It wanted a new license from the agency in 2015 to pay ISRA “monies owed for work performed” which it highlighted in a letter to the Treasury Department and USAID Jeremy Konyndyk, director of USAID’s Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance. World Vision claimed that “their whole program will be jeopardized” if they were unable to pay ISRA, per USAID’s mission director for Sudan, Larry Meserve.
Undoubtedly, ISRA and the Islamist government in Sudan aimed to exert pressure on World Vision, which was complicit, to take action. World Vision responded by threatening legal action and demanding the money’s release in frantic and intimidating emails to government representatives. According to Treasury records, World Vision was contacted on several occasions by senior staff members of US Congressman Adam Smith who was the ranking member and eventually the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Jeremy Weinstein, the deputy ambassador to the United Nations under UN Ambassador Samantha Powers (later the head of USAID under the Biden administration), sent an email to the director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control asking it to “review” ISRA’s terrorist designation “without a formal request,” circumventing the standard procedure. After the license was approved on 7th May 2015, USAID started “a one-time transfer of approximately $125,000 to ISRA.”
The Senate Finance Committee’s probe, which was based on the Middle East Forum’s conclusions, chastised World Vision for their obfuscatory “posture” during the inquiry and implied that the evangelical charity runs the risk of experiencing a similar crisis in the future. World Vision had been collaborating with ISRA for years before they were exposed. More importantly, its branches kept up their relationship with the terrorist group following the alarming reveal. World Vision was earlier involved with a terrorist group as well. World Vision and Interpal, a financial backer of Hamas and a US designated terror group, inked a cooperative memorandum in 2006.
World Vision seemed to finance a known front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) with funds from the Australian government, in 2012. Additionally, in 2022, World Vision’s Gaza operations manager, Muhammad Halabi, was found guilty and jailed by an Israeli court on allegations of funding terrorism. He was charged with transferring up to $50 million in World Vision funding to Hamas. However, World Vision has constantly taken funding from USAID. Since 2008, the charity has received about $2 billion in public money through USAID grants, with $200 million approved in 2024 alone.
State Department and USAID funds multiple terror groups
According to the Middle East Forum’s multi-year analysis of United States Department of State or State Department and USAID spending, at least $122 million of the $164 million in authorized grants to extremist organizations went to entities associated with identified terrorists and their allies. Leading American assistance institutions received billions more in federal funding, but to the utter disinterest of the federal government, they have consistently failed to screen their local partners with links to terrorism and had no interest in improving their methods.
USAID awarded millions of dollars to Islamists in the Indian subcontinent and Hamas-controlled groups in Gaza. The government representatives even visited the offices of Gaza terror proxies to start cooperative projects. Among countless other horrendous instances, USAID recipients were behind terror attacks on India. They also demanded that their territories be “cleansed” of the “impurity of the Jews.” The employees of several multi-million dollar USAID beneficiary charities publicly supported and promoted violence against Hindus and Jews. Meanwhile, USAID staff members visited the offices of groups that appear to act on behalf of top Hamas leaders.
These are the approved grant sums while the actual amounts outlaid are unknown. (Source: meforum.org)
The table referenced above illustrates the manner in which funds were directed through USAID and State Department to various radical and extremist organizations, both within the United States and abroad, that sought to carry out acts of terrorism and violence against Hindus and Jews. Local Islamists in cahoots with Hamas, Jamaat-e-Islami and the Turkish government were supported by federal funds to circumvent US regulations and monitoring aimed at combating the threat of terror financing. With millions of dollars distributed to anonymous recipients in terrorist-affected regions of the world, records of federal funds, primarily through USAID, are obscured by poor disclosure procedures, erased data and willful attempts to avoid transparency.
Members of Congress also accused groups like the “Tides Foundation” and other radical domestic groups of taking advantage of these funds to finance anti-Jewish and pro-Hamas violence on American college campuses. Easily swayed and complicit fellow travelers, such as prominent advocacy groups including “InterAction” and humanitarian groups consisting of “World Vision International” and “Catholic Relief Services” among others are crucial intermediaries for terror-tied Islamists, both domestically and internationally, often with their knowledge. These nonprofit organizations, which get billions of public dollars, are reliant on federal money.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at USAID had been the only internal voice of concern over the past year regarding USAID’s aid networks. It warned about the obfuscation by foreign NGOs and UN (United Nations) agencies, the inability of current procedures to identify connections of the recepients to violent extremism and the obvious risk of “armed groups” abusing the vetting and funding systems.
The US government is one of the biggest funders of Islamism worldwide, given the amount of federal money that winds up in the coffers of both local and overseas Islamist organizations. The federal government’s foreign aid initiatives have benefited violent radicals in particular. Hundreds of millions of public cash have been purposefully used by the State Department and USAID to support terrorists and their proxies. Now, USAID’s dubious funding history has gained attention as a result of the Trump administration’s actions.
Judges in United States of America refused to listen to people seeking asylum in America on the pretext of being Khalistani. These illegal infiltrators who went to America without a visa have been deported from the country. People who wanted asylum in the name of Khalistan were not supported even by the leaders who were giving them certificates of being victims in India. Such a story was shared on social media by a person who was thrown out of America, and he warned people against going to America illegally.
Puneet Sahni, who keeps fighting Khalistanis online, has shared this post. The deported Sikh wrote, “Brothers, orders for my deportation have been issued. I had a hearing in the court yesterday. The judge told me that you will be sent back in one of the next two flights. This is my last post, I am going to close this account so that I do not face any problem in India.”
Was passed this message of a Punjabi guy who was just deported from ??. Below I’ve translated it near word to word. This Khalistani SOB SimranjitMann is the most nihilistic shameless & dishonorable person. He has misled & brought suffering to so many Sikh youth & ordinary Pbis.… https://t.co/ywpP5jpRefpic.twitter.com/i4TbSixcFX
Massive #Khalistan Asylum FRAUD!@SimranjitSADA who is himself sitting in ??’s highest Parliament confesses in a Pbi interview that for a price he issues letter with which illegal immigrants get asylum status. Fraud apart also a #terrorism threat! Plz tag immigration authorities! pic.twitter.com/WyK4M9Vf4g
After this, the guy talked about Khalistan. He wrote, “The judge asked, what is the danger to you in India? We told him that we support Khalistan and India oppresses us. But the judge said, your Khalistani leaders are winning elections there and becoming MPs – he mentioned Simranjit Mann and Amritpal.”
The Khalistani supporter shared in his post that the US government also called MP Simranjit Singh Mann. Simranjit Singh himself had written to him that the youth seeking asylum in America are tortured in India for supporting Khalistan. However, Simranjit completely denied his statement on the judge’s phone and said that his people are not facing any danger in India.
The person who was deported from America said, “My lawyer had told me to speak about Khalistan but I had nothing to do with Khalistan. The judge told me, your case is fake. You gave wrong information to the court. On the advice of your lawyer, you had gone to get photographed in Khalistan demonstrations whereas there is no such movement in India now.”
The person, who was deported from America, warned those who are thinking of entering America illegally, “Brothers, now the courts and judges have become very strict and also those who sold you these asylum letters are not listening to you now.”
It is worth noting that a large number of Sikh youth who want to go abroad get a false certificate of their persecution made from many big leaders or any such recognized institution. On most occasions, this letter states that the person is a victim because of his alleged support for Khalistan.
These people then on most occasions seek asylum in Europe, America or Canada etc. on the basis of this letter. They enter these countries illegally. Former MP and Khalistan supporter Simranjit Singh Mann has himself admitted that he used to issue such letters in exchange for money.
Subhas Nair, an Indian-origin rapper has been sentenced to six weeks in jail in Singapore for making racially-charged remarks. Nair began his jail term on 5th February after he lost a court appeal against his conviction. 32-year-old Singaporean resident Nair was reportedly convicted in 2023 for his remarks made between July 2019 and March 2021.
What is the case against Nair
Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair has been quite vocal about racism against people of Indian and Malaysian origin in Singapore. He is currently facing four charges one of which relates to an Instagram post about a Chinese-origin man Chan Jia Xing, who was involved in the murder of an Indian-origin man called Satheesh Noel Gobidass. This case was infamously called the 2019 Orchard Towers murder. In this case, the accused Chan was initially charged with murder but later on, charges against him were diluted. It was alleged that Chan was allowed to get away because of his Chinese origin.
After he posted on his Instagram about the Orchid Towers murder, Nair was given a two-year conditional warning by the police. However, Nair did not comply and put out social media posts calling out racism and Chinese privilege in Singapore. In 2018, Nair released an album called ‘Not a Public Assembly’ in which he raised the issue of migrants and minorities in Singapore. Calling out the disparity in the treatment of Chinese people and the people of Indian and Malaysian origin in Singapore, he said, “Calling out racism and Chinese privilege = two-year conditional warning and media smear campaign. Conspiring to murder an Indian man = light sentence and media sympathy.”
Nair posted a YouTube video in 2019 which had an advertisement featuring a local actor named Dennis Chew, who portrayed multiple ethnicities in the video including an Indian man. The authorities claimed that the lyrics in his video were offensive to Chinese people. He was also charged for his 2021 performance at The Substation in Singapore where he reportedly displayed a hand-made replica of his Instagram post about the murder of Satheesh Noel Gobidass.
Nair’s lawyer defended his actions as emotive responses to racism
As per reports, the rapper filed an appeal before Justice Hoo Sheau Peng. Justice Peng rejected Nair’s appeal saying that she agreed with the lower court’s decision of convicting Nair and that the six-week jail term was not inappropriate. Too Xingh Ji, Nair’s advocate argued during his appeal that his actions were emotive responses to racism typical of social media discourse, not intended to incite racial hostility. However, Justice Peng upheld the conviction saying that the law did not require proof of malicious intent. She highlighted that Nair did not plead guilty and did not show any remorse for his actions. She added that Nair promoted ill will and displayed a disregard for the law despite receiving a conditional warning.
Soon after becoming the American President for the second time, Donald Trump has started deporting illegal immigrants using both military and commercial flights. As part of this exercise, over 100 Indians who had entered the USA illegally have been sent back to India. A military plane carrying the first batch of 104 Indians landed in Amritsar on Wednesday.
The Congress party has decided to make it a political issue, and has started attacking the Modi government for not doing anything to keep the Indians in the USA. The Congress party expects the NDA government to support illegal immigration.
The party leaders are also spreading fake news, using visuals of illegal immigrants from Guatemala in handcuffs and chained to claim that they were Indians. Using the images of Guatemalan immigrants, Congress leaders like Priyanka Vadra claimed that despite the friendship with PM Modi, Trump treated the Indians with indignity. She also demanded that the Indian government send flights to the US to bring back the illegal immigrants.
A #Fake image is being shared on social media by many accounts with a claim that illegal Indian migrants have been handcuffed and their legs chained while being deported by US#PIBFactCheck
▶️ The image being shared in these posts does not pertain to Indians. Instead it shows… pic.twitter.com/9bD9eYkjVO
There is no doubt that the Congress party always supported illegal immigration into India and now wants the Modi govt to show sympathy for Indians who entered the US without valid papers. But the fact is, the American government has full authority to deport illegal immigrants, just like the Indian govt has the full authority to detect and deport illegal immigrants staying in the country.
Indian govt regularly evacuates people from conflict or disaster-hit zones across the world. But the undocumented Indians in the US don’t fall in this category, and therefore there is no question of India on its own sending planes to bring them back. The US administration is using both military and commercial planes for the operation, and the Indian govt should not interfere in this.
Notably, the Congress party wants to create the impression that this is the first time such large-scale deportation of Indian illegal immigrants has taken place, and somehow this is a diplomatic loss for India. But that is completely wrong, as every country has the right to deport undocumented aliens, and it has nothing to do with the diplomatic relations between the two countries concerned.
Just like Indian authorities regularly detect and take steps to deport illegal immigrants, other countries also regularly do the same with Indians who entered those countries without valid visas. Several such instances were reported in the media in the past, including when the Congress party was in power at the centre.
Not just illegal immigrants, foreign countries also deported Indias who were living there legally but were found to be involved in various kinds of crimes, irregularities etc.
Here are a few such examples:
In 2011, around 6500 students were deported from Australia for Visa irregularities. In the same year, Saudi Arabia sent back around 50,000 Indian illegal immigrants, mostly unskilled workers, in an amnesty program. This also included those Indians who entered the country legally but had overstayed their Visas, including Haj and Umra Visas.
In the same year, a large number of Indian students were detained in the USA for alleged immigration fraud.
In an article in 2011, NBC reported that between October 2009 and March 2011, the US Border Patrol detained at least 2,600 illegal immigrants from India. It said that the number rose dramatically over around 150 to 300 arrests per year.
In February 2014, months before the Modi govt came to power, the Ministry of External Affairs informed the parliament that 56 Indians were deported from Singapore for allegedly being involved in riots.
Deportation of Indians from the USA took place under the Biden administration too. Kirti Vardhan Singh, MoS External Affairs, told the Lok Sabha in December last year that 519 Indian nationals were deported from the USA to India between November 2023 and October 2024, citing US government data. The reply stated, “As per US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Indian nationals who were deported from the US to India were under order of removal, as they were declared unauthorized to stay in the US by the competent authorities.”
Notably, according to data from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, over 5,000 Indians were deported from the country between 2018-2023 for entering and staying in the country illegally.
In 2019, more than 325 Indians were deported from Mexico for illegally entering the country. Mexican immigration authorities had chartered a Boeing 747-400 plane to transport the Indians back to India after they were issued Emergency Certificates.
Treatment of detainees
The Congress leaders have targeted PM Modi over alleged inhuman treatment of those deported from USA to India. However, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the process of deportation used by the US is not new, it has been there for years. He added that this is not a policy applicable to only one country.
The minister added that women and children were not restrained by US authorities.
Jaishankar further said that illegal immigration should be discouraged and deported Indians should be taken back, adding, “Our focus should be on crackdown on illegal migrants.”
Comparison with Devyani Khobragade incident
Congress leader Pawan Khera cited the incident of investigation against Indian Diplomat Devyani Khobragade in the USA in 2013. He said that when Khobragade was handcuffed and strip searched in America, Indian govt reacted sharply, registered a strong protest, and similarly the Modi govt also should protest against the Trump administration.
अमेरिका से भारतीयों को हथकड़ी लगाकर और अपमानित करके निर्वासित किए जाने की तस्वीरें देखकर, एक भारतीय होने के नाते मुझे दुख होता है।
मुझे दिसंबर 2013 की वह घटना याद है जब भारतीय राजनयिक देवयानी खोबरागड़े को अमेरिका में हथकड़ी लगाई गई थी और स्ट्रिप सर्च किया गया था।
However, this is a baseless allegation. Devyani Khobragade not only entered US legally, she was an Indian diplomat having diplomatic immunity. She was investigated alleging that she obtained visa for a woman illegally. To strip search a woman accused of visa fraud for someone else was excessive use of force, and therefore the Indian govt had lodged a strong complaint.
The current case can’t be compared with that. US has arrested illegal immigrants, restrained them and deporting them to the respective countries. Evert country has the right to arrest illegal immigrants, and India can’t protest if authorities in US arrest Indians who entered the country illegally.
Rahul Gandhi says that Indians deported from USA for illegal immigration deserve dignity and humanity, because the deportees were allegedly handcuffed and chained. While this sounds inhuman, the fact remains that they violated the rule of the land by entering the country, and the country has right to take appropriate legal action.
Handcuffing and restraining people detained for violation of law is standard police practice done everywhere, including in India. Calling for a diplomatic war against USA over this issue is completely illogical.
The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim protection to the officials of Discovery Communications India who are allegedly facing threats after the release of the documentary series “Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu”.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justices PV Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan ordered police authorities of at least seven states to ensure the protection of officials and properties of the broadcasting channel.
The order of the top court came on a petition filed by Discovery Communications India and its senior staff based in different states across India.
The channel which released the documentary on self-styled godman Asaram Bapu said several hate comments against Discovery and persons associated with it were received on the social media accounts of the Broadcasters.
The counsel of the broadcasting channel told the bench that it has become increasingly difficult for the petitioners to travel freely across the country.
The bench observed that it may not be possible for the petitioners to approach different High Courts where their staff may be posted and issued notice to the Central government and the authorities in Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Haryana, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.
“Issue notice returnable in the week commencing 3rd March 2025. In the meanwhile, we request the police authorities to ensure that the petitioner gets to use the office and no threats by way of physical harm are extended to the petitioners,” ordered the bench.
The petitioners claimed that the documentary on Asaram Bapu was made based on public records, court orders and witness testimonies. After the documentary was released on the OTT platform Discovery +, the petitioners claimed to have received threats.
The petition stated, “The series sheds light on the life of Asaram Bapu, a self-proclaimed spiritual leader currently serving a life sentence for crimes including rape and murder since 2018. It presents factual insights based on public records, witness testimonials and judicial records.”
The protection was being sought in light of threats and criminal intimidation from groups claiming to be supporters/ fans/followers/devotees of Asaram.
The plea said that on January 30, a mob gathered outside their Mumbai office, creating a ruckus, though the police dispersed the crowd, no action was taken against the perpetrators.
Asaram, serving life imprisonment in rape cases, is currently on bail on medical grounds.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
Last month, on January 28, was the day when Pakistan was given its name by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan, one of the earliest proponents of the creation of a separate country for Muslims living in British India. Contrary to the popular belief that Mohammad Ali Jinnah proposed the idea of Pakistan, it was, in fact, Choudhary Rahmat Ali Khan who suggested that the five provinces of Punjab, Afghania (North-West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan should constitute an independent Muslim nation.
Rehmat Ali Khan proposed the idea of a Muslim nation named ‘Pakistan’
Choudhary Rahmat Ali Khan, born in 1897 in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, laid down the foundation of the Pakistan Movement. Khan was a student of law at Cambridge University when he wrote his famous pamphlet on January 28, 1933, titled ‘Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever’. The pamphlet that came to be known as ‘the Pakistan Declaration’ suggested the idea of naming the dreamland of the Muslims in India as ‘Pakstan’ (without an ‘i’). Pakstan was an acronym for the names of provinces that were to constitute the Islamic country- Punjab, Afghania (North-West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan.
Addressed to the British and the Indian delegates at the third and last Round Table Conference held on November 17, 1932, the pamphlet failed to garner the support of the delegates who rejected it as student ideas.
The Third Round Table Conference (The Creative Post)
Khan’s idea of an independent Muslim nation was derived from the two-nation theory proposed by Islamist Syed Ahmed Khan. Khan believed that the fact that the Indian Muslims were ‘different’ from the rest of the people living in India, particularly Hindus, was reason enough for creating a separate country for Muslims. He mentioned his views in the pamphlet:
“Our religion and culture, our history and tradition, our social code and economic system, our laws of inheritance, succession and marriage are fundamentally different from those of most people living in the rest of India. The ideals which move our people to mak the highest sacrifices are essentially different from those which inspire the Hindus to do the same. These differences are not confined to broad, basic principles. Far from it, they extend to the minutest details of our lives. We do not inter-dine; we do not inter-marry. Our national customs and calendars, even our diet and dress are different”.
Almost a decade later, the idea of Pakistan found traction with Muslim leaders, including Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and culminated in the adoption of a political statement by the All-India Muslim League popularly known as the Lahore Resolution or the Pakistan Resolution during the Lahore Conference held in March 1940 in Punjab. Marking the beginning of the Pakistan Movement, the Lahore Resolution accepted the constitution of a united homeland for Muslims recommending the creation of independent Muslim-majority states.
Addressing a gathering of thousands, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who had earlier rejected the idea of Pakistan, validated the two-nation theory and said,
“Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religions, philosophies, social customs, and literature…It is quite clear that Hindus and Muslims derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes, and different episodes…To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numeric minority and the other as a majority must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built up for the government of such a state.”
Gradually, the idea of Pakistan gained popularity among the Muslims and the Pakistan movement led by the All-India Muslim League resulted in the creation of Pakistan on August 14, 1947. But the man who conceived the idea of Pakistan was not pleased. Choudhary Rahmat Ali Khan was dissatisfied with the smaller geographical area of Pakistan than he had proposed in his 1933 pamphlet. He criticised Jinnah for settling for a smaller Pakistan and referred to him as ‘Quisling-e-Azam’ (meaning a traitor or collaborator) drawing a comparison with a Norwegian leader Vidkun Quisling who collaborated with Nazi Germany during WWII.
Expelled from his dreamland of Pakistan, Ali died a pauper in England
While Jinnah got all the glory after the creation of Pakistan, Choudhary Rahmat Ali Khan led a life of seclusion and destitution till his final days. Ironically, Khan, who so vehemently vouched for a separate Muslim nation which was supposed to be the dreamland of the Muslims of British India, could not get a piece of land in that Muslim dreamland even for his grave. When he returned from England in April 1948, he was expelled from Pakistan by its first Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan. An impoverished Ali died a lonely death in Cambridge. Emmanuel College, Cambridge bore his funeral expenses. He was buried at Cambridge City Cemetery on February 20, 1951
On Wednesday, February 5th, the Hamas that launched a terror attack on Israel in October 2023 joined hands with the terrorist organizations Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Kashmir. At an event named ‘Kashmir Solidarity and Hamas Operation ‘Al Aqsa Flood’ Conference’ held at the Shaheed Sabir Stadium in Rawalakote, one of the terrorists from JeM announced from the stage that the Hamas and Pakistani terrorist groups have united.
“The ‘Mujahideen of Palestine’ and ‘Mujahideen of Kashmir’ have now united. It’s time to shed blood in Delhi and to separate Kashmir from India,” he threatened.
As per the reports, the event was attended by Talha Saif, brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, Jaish commanders Asghar Khan Kashmiri and Masood Ilyas, and top LeT leaders. Dr Khalid Al-Qadoumi, Hamas representative in Iran, also attended the event making the first Hamas leader’s visit to Kashmir. Apart from this, several Palestinian leaders participated in the event.
It is important to note that Pakistan observes ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ on 5th February and conducts activities that usually push the anti-India agenda. This development reveals Pakistan’s crucial hand in promoting terrorism under the guise of ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day.’ Terrorist organizations like JeM and LeT have launched several terrorist attacks on India, including the 2001 Parliament attack, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and the 2019 Pulwama bombing.
#BREAKING: Hamas joins hands with Jaish e Muhammad and Lashkar e Tayyiba in Rawlakot of Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Jaish terrorist announces that Hamas and Pakistani Jihadi groups have united. Jaish gunmen can be seen on stage protecting Hamas leaders from Palestine. pic.twitter.com/p0Vn2rTKwW
On 7th October 2023, Israel came under one of the worst attacks in recent history after hundreds of Hamas terrorists infiltrated the Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Additionally, Palestinian terrorists also launched massive rocket barrages at southern and central Israel from the Gaza Strip prompting it to declare a ‘state of war’.
The terrorists also held several Israelis hostage including women, children, and the elderly. Around 1300 people were killed in indiscriminate firing, and videos reveal that they had also paraded women bared and bruised on the streets. Several people remained to be held hostage by Hamas, although some of them have been released in recent days in a peace deal.
Until now, the operations of Hamas were only limited to the Middle East, but its recent developments in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and growing links with Pakistan-based terror outfits indicate the increased influence of Hamas in the region nearby. Earlier, in 2023, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh stated that “the Palestine and Kashmir issues had been a litmus test for advocates of human rights.” He had indicated that all the Islamists must unite in support of Palestine and Kashmir. Notably, in June 2024, Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed in Tehran.
Hamas: Emerged out of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region
Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, which means “Islamic Resistance Movement” in English. It was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin who was a Palestinian cleric. After doing Islamic scholarship in Cairo, he was associated with the local branches of the Muslim Brotherhood. In the 1960s, Yassin preached religious sermons in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Subsequently, in December 1987, Yassin established Hamas as the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza. This came in the backdrop of the first intifada – Palestinian attacks against Israel for alleged atrocities in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Initially, Hamas believed that Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was a threat to the Muslim Brotherhood so it did everything to ‘counter’ it. In 1988, Hamas published its charter which called for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic society in historic Palestine.
Since April 1993, Hamas has been carrying out suicide bombings. The first reported bombing was done five months before PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords. The historic accord led to the establishment of limited self-government for parts of the West Bank and Gaza. A new entity called the Palestinian Authority (PA) was created for this purpose. However, Hamas condemned and tried to derail these developments towards peace. It also condemned the PLO’s and Israel’s recognition of each other.
Later, in 1997, the United States designated Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization, as it went on to spearhead violent resistance during the second intifada, in the early 2000s. Hamas’s founder, Yassin was killed by Israeli forces in 2004. Apart from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hamas is the other major outfit in Palestinian territories. Since 2006, the Islamist outfit Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip. Back then, it defeated its rival political party, Fatah, in elections, but there hasn’t been any election in the Palestinian enclave.
Previously, Syria used to host Hamas leadership, but it had a fallout with Syrian authorities after the Palestinian refugees participated in the 2011 uprising that preceded the Syrian Civil War. Meanwhile, some of the Hamas leadership has an office in Turkey and they reportedly operate from there. Notably, the group behind the horrific attack on Israel on 7th October is not only responsible for terrorism in the Jewish country or the Middle East but also has penetrated its venomous claws in India as well.
Hamas and SIMI’s shared goal of an Islamic state in India
The Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) which had close ties with Pakistan-based terror outfits and Indian Mujahideen (IM) was banned by the government of India on 27th September 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The group faced serious charges, including sedition, creating hatred, and engineering communal violence, among others. It was earlier reported how Hamas and SIMI shared the goal of an Islamic state in India and also furthered funding to promote anti-India activities.
SIMI believed that ideas of secularism, democracy, and nationalism are anti-Islamic, and it frequently emphasized the need for an armed struggle to establish Islam’s supremacy, the restoration of the Khalifat (the Islamic state or caliphate), and ummah (Muslim brotherhood) in India. The organization believed that, despite being a minority in the country, Muslims should work hard to ensure that Shari’ah is implemented, as failure to do so will result in their demise in Hell. Hence, the creation of an Islamic polity in the state of India is considered to be the primary goal of Indian Muslims, per SIMI. The goals of SIMI, which resembled what Hamas sought to do to Jews in Israel, underscored the commonality between the two groups.
SIMI, which had a pan-India presence with bases in states including Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir, not only had close links with JeI, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and Pakistan-based jihadi groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) but also Hamas. The latter also funded the former, which was unveiled and confirmed by one of the SIMI terrorists who was arrested by the Indian state. Salim Sajid, an ex-financial secretary of SIMI unveiled that one of the organization’s main funding sources was Hamas.
He also informed that SIMI received financial support from both Bangladesh’s Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) a student wing of JeI Bangladesh, and Saudi Arabia’s Jamayyatul Ansar (JA) which is mainly made up of Indian Muslims who work in the country and believed to be transferring money to SIMI. The other sources of funding to SIMI, as per Sajid, were the Consultative Committee of Indian Muslims in the United States, the International Islamic Federation of Students Organizations headquartered in Kuwait, and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in Riyadh.
Hamas looking for potential recruits?
Extremist and terror groups frequently establish front organizations to hide their identities, and members of these groups often join groups that share similar beliefs, be it LeT which tries to masquerade as a “charity outfit” named Jama’at-ud-Da’wah or Jaish-e-Mohammed which is hiding behind People’s Anti-Fascist Front to carry out its violent operations in Jammu and Kashmir. More importantly, the relationship between Hamas and SIMI, or any other terror group, may seem odd to some because of multiple differences including linguistic, geographic, or even political but the important thing to remember is that these groups are all motivated by the same ideology which is hatred of Kufar or Kafir (infidels) and the establishment of an Islamic state.
On the other hand, Hamas has been firing a spree of rockets and mortars into Israel after it took over Gaza. Hamas has been dropping hundreds of balloons laden with inflammatory substances and explosives, along with rockets, on Israeli territories,s causing indiscriminate death and destruction to civilians. Additionally, Israel has responded fiercely and unsparingly against the continued provocation, with persistent airstrikes and tank fires on locations described by it as Gaza’s military infrastructure installations. Following this, Hamas, which has lost most of its terrorists to Israel’s counter-attack operations, might be looking to expand its infrastructure, joining hands with terrorist minds and furthering anti-India ideology.
Reports suggest that intelligence agencies had earlier warned of Hamas’s potential engagement with radical elements in South Asia. Therefore, Hamas’s old friendship with Pakistan and jihadi organizations furthering anti-India ideology cannot be ignored hereinafter. The Pakistani army has been providing training to Hamas terrorists. Several terrorists of Hamas’s Air and Naval Wing are trained by SSG commandos of Pakistan. The country also provides huge funding to Hamas. And now, it is openly hosting events promoting terrorism under the guise of ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ where terrorists who have previously launched deadly terrorist attacks on India are joining hands with Hamas.
At the event, notably, the terrorist groups talked against the leadership in India. They also made indefinite comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Addressing the event, one of the JeM terrorists said that the ‘Mujahideen of Palestine’ and ‘Mujahideen of Kashmir’ have now united. He also indicated war against India as he threatened to shed blood in Delhi and to separate Kashmir from India.
