Around 500 delegates, 50 of whom were from abroad, took part in the conference. The conference was called ‘The Idea of India’ and took place in London from 18 to 20 May 2022. It was organised by Bridge India Foundation which registered as a charity in the UK in 2019. It describes itself as a ‘progressive non-profit think tank which will help India watchers to understand India better’. The conference was ostensibly to deliberate on issues like investment, education and green technology. Pushpraj Deshpande, one of the sponsors of the event and founder of the Samruddha Bharat Foundation, said, “the conference was organised to change the narrative in India which was not casteist or communalist.” He further said, “the West is very worried, the UK especially, about racism and communalism in their societies. No UK political party would want to be seen to endorse the systematic targeting of minorities, so how can the West sit silently on what is happening in India? They expect India to be a regional antidote to China. Are they really expecting us to be a regional antidote when we are going the China and Russian way?” Deshpande is a supporter of the Congress Party and his organisation was actually launched by Rahul Gandhi.
Amongst those present at the conference were Gandhi, Communist leader Sitaram Yechury, Congress leader Salman Kurshid, and Mohua Moitra of the Trinamool Congress. Sam Pitroda and Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India were amongst the speakers. Gandhi, in his address to the conference, said, “India was not in a good place and PM Modi does not listen. There is kerosene all over the country and all it needs is one spark.” Gandhi continued that mass action is required to free India from ‘deep state’ organisations like RSS and even CBI! He also remarked that some European bureaucrats complained that the Indian Foreign Service has completely changed and the officers are arrogant! Gandhi also spoke at an event organised by Dr Shruti Kapila, assistant professor of History at Cambridge and Fellow of Corpus Christi College. Dr Kapila is a Congress supporter and has stated that Veer Savarkar (Vinayak Damodar Savarkar) is the Father of new India, presumably under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In her speech, Moitra emphasised, “India needs a multicultural Indian government, not a uni-dimensional narrow one. I do not have to prove my patriotism every time I open my mouth.”
According to The Times of India, meetings were held behind closed doors with senior left-wing politicians and shadow ministers in the UK as well as business leaders, activists, and academics. Amongst the trustees of Bridge India are Suprio Chaudhuri, Chief Learning Officer, ATMC; Ashwin Kumara Swamy, Investment Director Mercia Management; and Raquib Islam, a British civil servant. Author Salil Tripathi and Santosh Bhanot of the Asian Circle are amongst the advisers. The Bridge Foundation is a sponsor of the Asian Achievements Awards. For an organisation which professes to encourage exchange of ideas, there was no one from the BJP among the speakers. No one remotely sympathetic to the ruling party, which has won two elections, was among the speakers. It is obvious that this conference was a coming together of failed left-wing politicians, academics, and evangelical groups. These groups have paid lip service to disadvantaged groups for decades and the overwhelming numbers of people in India have seen through their fake stomach thumping!
