London Diary: Indian students ‘gaming’ the visa system

Students from India have been accused of “gaming the visa system” by a former British Universities Minister Jo Johnson—once the Financial Times’ Indophile correspondent in Delhi—amid calls for a review of the student visa regime as part of its efforts to control immigration.

His allegation came after it emerged that the drop-out rate among Indian and Bangladeshi students was the highest among international students, with one in four dropping out to take up jobs.

Students are allowed to work up to 20 hours a week and can keep doing this even if not attending university, as long as they are still registered with it.

Johnson said that overseas students should have to prove they can support themselves for the duration of their course to prevent abuse of the system. In other words, they should have enough money in the bank. Other proposals include banning them from bringing their family members.

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Samir Shah’s faith

An intriguing controversy has erupted around Samir Shah, the new (India-born) BBC chairman, whose appointment appears to have got a good play in the Indian media because of his ethnicity.

The controversy is not about his competence or his politics but his religion, with many suggesting that he is a closet Muslim. This has rattled expat ‘nationalists’ who had automatically assumed that he was Hindu.

Shah himself has never spoken about his religion, but often talked about Islam in media interviews. Or, as one news website put it, he has ‘engaged in discussions about Islam in various interviews’.

‘Who is Samir Shah? Is Samir Shah Muslim? Who is Samir Shah’s Wife?’ asked a screaming headline on NAYAG Today. After peddling some conspiracy theories, it admitted that ‘while there is information available about his family, including his wife Belkis and son Cimran, specific details about Samir Shah’s wife and their relationship are not widely disclosed’.

Another outlet, Pinkbraces.com, wrote: ‘Ever since Samir Shah was named head of the BBC, there has been a lot of interest in his ethnicity’. And, after promising to ‘out’ him, it had only this to say: ‘Some people may be disappointed that there isn’t more information, but it’s important to remember that someone’s religion doesn’t always affect their job duties and roles’.

Meanwhile, a west-Asian website, Aham Khabar, was certain that though he came from a Hindu family, he was Muslim. ‘Shah is a Muslim. He was born into a Muslim family in India. He has spoken about the importance of his faith in his life. Shah is married to Aaisha Shah. She is a doctor and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. The couple have two children’, it declared, without offering any evidence.

And here is current-affairs.com: ‘Dr Samir Shah’s religious background is Hindu. He follows the Hindu faith, which is one of the major religions in the world and has a rich cultural and spiritual tradition’.

So, there you are.

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A sinking Sunak...

Day by day, opinion poll by opinion poll, Rishi Sunak is seeing his prime ministership slipping away in the face of growing public fatigue with his Tory party on the one hand (only 30 per cent voters say he is doing a good job) and a simmering right-wing revolt against his immigration policy on the other.

The resignation of immigration minister Robert Jenrick, a close friend of Sunak, over this issue has emboldened party hardliners, fuelling talk of choosing a new leader—the fourth in as many years—ahead of next year’s general election.

Last week, he narrowly survived a crucial vote on a bill seeking to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda to process their claims, despite the Supreme Court declaring it an ‘unsafe’ country from the human rights aspect.

His role in the handling of the pandemic as the Chancellor of the Exchequer is also under scrutiny. He was forced to apologise in his deposition to an ongoing official inquiry into the then government’s lockdown policy.

The crisis facing him and his party is so grave that he warned his colleagues to “unite or die”.

But, as the Times reported, ‘a growing number of Tory MPs believe they are already politically dead and blame Sunak for their demise’.

Is this what they mean when they say “death by a thousand cuts”?

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‘Great Britain’? What’s that

The pandemic has left Britain with a social divide reminiscent of the ‘Two Nations’ of the Victorian era, with more than 13 million people leading lives blighted by poverty, broken families, poor housing and chronic ill-health.

A study by the Centre for Social Justice points out that the lockdowns blew open the divide between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. It found ‘a yawning gap between those who can get by and those stuck at the bottom’.

The report, ‘Two Nations: The State of Poverty in the UK’, catalogues the effect of lockdowns on mental health issues, school absence and homelessness—all of which were exacerbated by the lockdowns. A household became homeless every three minutes, it says.

‘Great Britain’? What’s that?

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And, lastly, ‘vaccine tycoon’ Adar Poonawalla has reportedly paid £138 million for a vast mansion in Mayfair, London’s most expensive neighbourhood.