England doesn’t expect British citizens of Indian origin to support it against India in World Cup Cricket 

Asian fans at the Cricket World Cup hit Tebbit test for six”, read a headline in The Sunday Times as the Cricket World Cup series got underway.

Remember the notorious “cricket loyalty test” named after the former right-wing Tory minister Norman Tebbit who suggested that Asian immigrants’ loyalty to their adopted land should be judged by who they cheered if England was playing against their country of origin? Indian and Pakistani immigrants who cheered teams from “back home” were accused of disloyalty to Britain.

Not that anyone really ever took the “test” seriously but it was a sign of the times back in the 1970s that someone—and no less a minister—could make such an outrageously racist suggestion. Happily, times have changed and today teams from the subcontinent feel almost like among the home crowd given their fan following among British Asians. It’s the England team which sometimes seems to struggle to find enough people to cheer them.

No wonder, then, as The Sunday Times report says: “The match between England and India at Edgbaston in Birmingham on June 30 will see more British fans rooting for the team from the subcontinent than for the home side.” Tory peer of Indian origin Lord Gadhia dismissed the “Tebbit test” as “outdated”. Brits, he said, were becoming increasingly comfortable with their multiple identities.

Apparently, most of the tickets for matches featuring subcontinental teams have been snapped up by their Asian origin cheer leaders. The India-Pakistan match on Sunday (June 16) is already sold out. Nearly, 600,000 reportedly applied for the 25,000 seats available at Old Trafford.

Now, that is cricket!

India House “debts”

The Indian High Commission in London is among the foreign missions which owe hundreds of thousands of pounds in unpaid congestion charge to London Transport. The exact amount India House owes is reported to be £6,196,465.

The biggest debt, however, is owed by the US embassy —£12,598, 845. Other big defaulters include Japan and Russia.

Congestion charge is levied on vehicles driving into central London, but embassies claim they enjoy diplomatic immunity: a claim questioned by London transport authorities.

Faking, Trump-style

There’s fake news and then there’s Donald Trump’s fake news. Which is anything he finds too damaging or embarrassing to believe.

When he was in Britain two weeks ago, thousands of people took to the streets of London to protest his visit. The biggest protest was held barely yards from Downing Street where he was holding talks with Theresa May. The chants of protesters could be heard inside the conference room and TV channels carried “live” footage of his motorcade going past them.

Yet, Trump insisted there were no protests and it was all “fake” news spread by a “corrupt media”.

“I kept hearing that there would be ‘massive’ rallies against me in the UK, but it was quite the opposite. The big crowds, which the Corrupt Media hates to show, were those that gathered in support of the USA and me. They were big & enthusiastic as opposed to the organised flops!”, he claimed. Got it?

Naipaul & Islam

V.S. Naipaul became the darling of the nationalist Hindu Right and the BJP leadership on the back of his tendentious writings on Islam and Muslims. He described the destruction of Babri Masjid as “reordering of history”. But now one of his close friends, Farukh Dhondy, has disclosed that Naipaul “knew nothing” about Islam and was so ignorant that, “If you mentioned Prophet Mohammad he would have probably said: Mohammad Who”, he said at the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival in London.

Dhondy was trying to defend Naipaul against allegations of Islamophobia criticism —arguing that his anti-Muslim rants were prompted by his ignorance rather than prejudice. Nice try, Mr Dhondy—but sorry ignorance is not considered defence against communalism. Not yet. It’s not for nothing that, in Dhondy’s own words, he was known as Naipaul’s “chamcha”. Naipaul, as Rahul Singh recalled, had a knack for falling out with friends on the most spurious of grounds (Singh himself was a victim of his capricious behaviour) but Dhondy somehow managed to survive. For which, Singh said, he deserved full marks.

And, lastly, headline of the week: Race for PM Goes To Pot, (Daily Mirror).

A reference to claims by many of the leading Tory party contenders to replace Theresa May as prime minister that they smoked pot at some point in their career.