Edge of dusk

Charlie Kirk was thirty-one when he was shot and killed at a university campus in Utah. You can disagree with his worldview or legacy, but he never used force to get what he wanted. He went campus to campus speaking, challenging opponents, arguing, converting young people to his cherished worldview.

Just so that you know, this piece is not about him. As is the case with most right-wing activists, he was a polarising figure in American politics, and I can live with that difference of opinion. However, there are certain patterns that have emerged in recent days. We need to talk about them. Charlie's assassination was one of them.

I would not have even heard about it for days given my mother's sudden death in Dubai and, for some strange reason, my struggle to get a visa to attend her funeral. I will share that story another day. I was alerted to the shooting by our mutual friends. I knew Charlie through social media and he did not stop following me when, on a principle disagreement, I unfollowed him.

When I asked these friends about the motive of the shooter and which of the many controversies he was involved in might have prompted this, I was told that the shooter was at large. Then they shared his tweet from last week about more visas to India. Hold your horses. I am not accusing any nationality of killing him. I am describing what was shared with me and my takeaway.

He was commenting on Laura Ingraham's original post which read:

"Don't forget that any trade deal with India will require us to give them more visas. I'd rather not pay them in visas and trade deficits. Let Modi see what terms he can get from Xi instead."

In response Charlie wrote:

"America does not need more visas for people from India. Perhaps no form of legal immigration has so displaced American workers as those from India. Enough already. We're full. Let's finally put our own people first."

When I pointed to several other statements regarding various communities like trans people, liberals, or folks protesting against the Gaza situation, I was told those were old controversies and despite so much pushback there was no violent attempt on his life. This was the only new controversy.

You have to understand the conservative MAGA movement's apprehensions about the Indian community. Many of them have not forgiven Hillary Clinton for challenging their beloved leader in 2016. Of the three Democrats who challenged Trump in general elections, only Biden could boast of not presenting a clear target. Reason? Because he was a white Christian man with a long history of policy consistency. He later became a target of his own party. But I get ahead of myself.

In the 2024 primaries a number of prominent Republicans contested. All but one dropped out conceding President Trump's popularity. That exception was Nikki Haley. Ms Haley happens to be of Indian origin. It was plain that she did not have enough delegates to mount a serious challenge to Trump. It seemed she was waiting for something to happen, perhaps Trump's disqualification in court rather than what later materialised. But when an assassin's bullet pierced President Trump's ear and he miraculously survived, she was caught in an awkward public situation where she could arguably be the only political beneficiary had the bullet found its mark. She quickly dropped out and endorsed him but some damage was already done.

What happened next was even more damaging. President Biden soon dropped out and VP Kamala Harris became the party's candidate. President Trump seized the opportunity and, challenging her black identity, claimed that she was only of Indian origin. This then became too much of a coincidence for his base.

Noticing the incendiary elements lying out in open back in 2022 I began to urge the Desi community to step away from limelight. It was during the race for the conservative leadership that two strong Desi candidates had emerged, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid. My concern was that such visibility could harm the Indian and Pakistani communities. While Javid dropped out, Sunak's supporters pressed on. He recently became the face of the worst Tory defeat in modern history.

The Desi community should pay heed. While Indians and Pakistanis resemble each other, they do not resemble the native populations of western countries. This factor ought not be taken lightly. And to appreciate this complex reality you will have to take a look at the explosive materials I mentioned earlier.

In 2011, French author Renaud Camus published his book Le Grand Remplacement. The book popularised the great replacement conspiracy theory. Simply put, the theory claims that the "replacist" elite, a dog whistle ostensibly referring to the Jewish elite, were actively replacing French and people of white European origin with citizens of non-white, mainly Muslim nations. When the theory found traction the war on terror was still raging, the Arab Spring had only begun to displace large populations as refugees and Muslims were easy marks. But then it stopped. By 2024, people of Indian origin had come into sharp focus. While Muslims are a part of the general social mess, they are not in a position of power. People of Indian origin however are.

This is how the debate about the complex relationship between the West's visa policy and Indian diaspora became so intense. The H1-B visa, nearly 70 per cent of which goes to India, thus became a major bone of contention.

Given this apprehension among the MAGA crowd, almost on cue, far-right demagogues like Geert Wilders began amplifying Charlie's tweets critiquing Muslim subcultures. This could potentially help distract from his criticism of the visa policy.

But owing to a twist of fate, the links between such far-right elements and India's far-right government are being investigated by western intelligence agencies. For this they have to thank the Indian government's desperate attempts to normalise the post-Article 370 Kashmir status when it invited far-right MEPs to visit the erstwhile state and the EU Disinfolab uncovered the visit's key sponsor Srivastava Group's shady operations.

It is not great news for the diaspora community when involvement of your country of origin can be suspected in every upheaval from the governmental collapse in France to growing instability in the UK and the overthrow of government in Nepal, whose former premier had committed the innocent mistake of claiming that Ram was born in Nepal, not today's Ayodhya in India where the Ram Janambhoomi temple now stands.

India's increasingly muscular government is feeding the elements contributing directly to its diaspora's suffering. By continuing to exist, the Modi government poses a grave threat to the Indian community abroad. A storm is coming, and it will seriously harm India's interests at home and abroad.