Varsha Gandikota declares PM Modi an ‘anti-national’ for visiting Israel: Inside her organisation Progressive International and the Newsclick connection

The historic visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel has attracted global attention. While India and Israel are bolstering their partnership in various sectors, from trade to defence, the ‘Free Palestine’ Islamo-leftist cabal is irked. From Islamists, pretentious ‘secular’ politicians, leftist propaganda outlets, and the wider leftist ‘intelligentsia’, all are mindlessly condemning PM Modi for visiting Israel and addressing the Knesset. In this vein, Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, the Co-General Coordinator at Progressive International, labelled PM Modi ‘anti-national’ for signing the Israeli Knesset’s guests’ book. “Signing our beautiful country’s name in the blood-stained Knesset is the singlemost anti-national thing one could do,” Nellutla wrote on X on 25th February. Notably, on 25th February, PM Modi addressed the Israeli Knesset, wherein he strongly reaffirmed India’s support for Israel, underlining the deep friendship between the two countries, their shared stand against terrorism, and growing cooperation in defence, trade and technology. The Prime Minister minced no words and explicitly named and condemned the Palestinian Islamic terror group, Hamas’s October 7 (2023) massacre of over 1200 Israeli civilians during a local festival. “We feel your pain; we share your grief. India stands with Israel firmly, with full conviction in this moment and beyond. No cause can justify the murder of civilians. Nothing can justify terrorism,” PM Modi said. At the end of Modi’s speech, the Knesset awarded him the “Speaker of the Knesset Medal,” which is the highest award given by the Knesset, in recognition of his efforts in enhancing the strategic relationship between the two countries.  Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, Progressive International and the NewsClick connection Varsha Gandikota serves as the Co-coordinator General at the Progressive International (PI), an international organisation that mobilises leftist activists and groups globally. “The Progressive International launched in May 2020 with a mission to unite, organise and mobilise the world’s progressive forces,” PI’s website states. Varsha leads the PI’s “Blue Print” policy work and The Hague Group. The Progressive International is a hardcore Israel-hater and actively indulges in pro-Palestine advocacy, even if that means supporting or downplaying Hamas’s Islamic terrorism. Upon checking Progressive International’s website, we came across numerous propaganda articles and statements peddling the insidious Muslim victimhood narrative to slander the Modi government. In one of its statements issued in 2023, the PI portrayed bulldozer action against houses of Muslim rioters after the anti-Hindu violence in Haryana’s Nuh as ‘demolition of India’s democracy’. The statement was signed by Islamists like British Labour MP Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn. The Progressive International hosts a dozen anti-India, particularly anti-Hindu propaganda pieces. In one such briefing titled “Naked Hindu Supremacism”, PI vilified Hindus to peddle the Muslim victimhood bogey. The PI has constantly been vilifying Hindus, Hindutva, BJP-RSS and the Modi government. In one such article on the Manipur crisis, Progressive International blamed ‘Hindu nationalists’, accusing them of waging a  ‘supremacy war’. The Progressive International has the likes of Harsh Mander as its council member. Mander had written several articles slandering Hindutva and, by extension, Hindus. In one such article headlined, Is India Lurching Into a Genocide?, Mander cited Gregory Stanton to falsely suggest that a “genocide of Muslims in India could take place”. Notably, Harsh Mander had worked in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) for almost two decades and quit the service in protest against the ‘state-sponsored riots’ in Gujarat in 2002. After quitting as an IAS, Mander later worked in Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council (NAC) that drafted the anti-Hindu Communal Violence Bill. Mander has also served as the Director of the Centre for Equity Studies (CES), which received funds from Christian Evangelical Organizations and he has openly batted for religious conversions in the past.  Harsh Mander’s article, designed to fuel the victimhood complex among Muslims, was shared by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. He had written in the article published in 2018, “Muslims are today’s castaways, political orphans with no home, for virtually every political party. This is despite India being home to a tenth of the world’s Muslims, around 180 million people, making it the largest Muslim country after Indonesia and Pakistan. There has never been a harder time to be a Muslim in India, not since the stormy months that followed India’s Partition.” Harsh Mander is also a known Ishrat apologist, the female LeT operative who was killed in an encounter along with three others by Crime Branch Officials in Gujarat. Harsh Mander was also one of the forty ‘activists’ who had filed a review petition in the Court against the Ayodhya Verdict that paved the way for a Bhavya Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. He is also part of the coterie and has filed a petition against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Mander had also incited Muslims to riot during anti-CAA protests. The Progressive International also has former JNU professor and Islamic terrorist Afzal Guru’s fan, Jayati Ghosh, as its council member.  Back in 2016, Ghosh criticised the Modi government for suppressing protests organised to commemorate the death sentence of terrorist Afzal Guru. In addition, Ghosh has also been named alongside Sitaram Yechury and Yogendra Yadav in the supplementary chargesheet of the 2020 Delhi Riots case. In its “Cabinet”, the executive body, the Progressive International has Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the UK’s Labour Party. Corbyn is a man of controversy. Back in 2023, he refused to call Hamas a terror organisation during an interview with Piers Morgan. In 2009, Jeremy Corbyn invited terrorists belonging to the radical Islamic outfits, Hezbollah and Hamas, to the UK Parliament. Previously, Corbyn had supported the “Free Riaz and Qayyum Campaign”, which sought to get Mohammed Riaz and Abdul Quayyam Raja, convicted of kidnapping and murdering an Indian diplomat, Ravindra Mhatre, on British soil, released from prison. In 2022, Corbyn was photographed with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the latter’s controversial UK visit. A massive row had erupted over Gandhi meeting Corbyn as the former Labour leader has a history of supporting Kashmiri separatist narratives, echoing Pakistan’s position on Jammu and Kashmir, and endorsing calls for international intervention in India’s internal affairs. Notably, the PI’s “emeritus” advisory members comprise of the likes of Noam Chomsky and NewsClick-linked Marxist journalist Vijay Prashad. Interestingly, the Progressive International formerly had Vijay Prashad as its council member. He was a part of the founding interim council of the Progressive International. Vijay Prashad is central to the Neville Roy Singham-funded leftist network. Prashad, who is the director of Tricontinental, is reported to have received funding from Singham for Tricontinental. Singham also poured millions into various pro-China and anti-India propaganda outlets, including People’s Dispatch, where Vijay Prashad has contributed propaganda articles. People’s Dispatch, a media portal that touts itself to be an “international media project with the mission of bringing to the world voices from people’s movements and organisations across the globe.” In one of the articles from January 2020, Prashad has sympathised with the JNU protesters and inveighed against the Modi government. Among Indians introduced by Neville Roy Singham to his larger team, who worked with Tricontinental, one of the nonprofits that the New York Times said was involved in pushing Chinese talking points, were Prabir Purkayastha, Srujana, Prasanth, and Vijay Prashad.   Prashad also has close ties with Urban Naxal P Sainath, whose propaganda portal PARI recently removed references to Singham after his connection with the Chinese propaganda arm had come to light. Newsclick’s anti-Hindu bias is not hidden. Moreover, Newsclick is also under scrutiny for its alleged connections with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 2023, an investigation by the New York Times uncovered an ecosystem of activist organisations, non-profits, shell corporations, and their intimate ties to China and Chinese propaganda, with Neville Roy Singham at its helm. A Delhi Police chargesheet filed in 2024 called the Chinese state the “ultimate paymaster”, with funds routed to stoke anti-India narratives, especially regarding Kashmir, and farmers’ protests. The case is ongoing in the court. In 2021, OpIndia conducted a detailed investigation into the links of NewsClick and uncovered how it was linked to several individuals who regularly spew venom against India, from Urban Naxals to those like Teesta Setalvad, Abhisar Sharma and several others. That investigation by OpIndia can be read here. Progressive International’s Tides Foundation connection As per the Progressive International’s website, it has over 70 organisations as its members. These include the pro-Hamas group Arab Resource and Organising Centre, which is sponsored by the Tides Foundation. Interestingly, OpIndia earlier traced the links between the Tides Foundation and Newsclick. Tides Foundation is notorious for funding several anti-Hindu, anti-India organisations and elements. The Foundation gave grants to Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), which has links to Islamists and Khalistanis, and was formed in 2019 by two Islamist advocacy groups, the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) athe nd Organisation for Minorities of India (OFMI). Tides also funded AMAN Public Charitable Trust (AMAN). This trust is connected to the NewsClick-China funding scandal, where it is alleged that Chinese entities funded NewsClick to disrupt Indian sovereignty. Varsha Gandakoti’s anti-Hindutva and pro-Hamas viewpoints Using the excuse that Hamas is a non-state actor, Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla has continuously been defending the Palestinian Islamic terror group that has essentially declared Israel a Waqf property in its Charter, and vowed to fight until the last of the Jews are killed. Interestingly, as per one of the posts by Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, Bhima Koregaon violence accused Varavara Rao is her uncle. Sharing an article she wrote for the Boston Review, Varsha posted, “I write about my uncle, Varavara Rao, the revolutionary poet in prison.” Varavara Rao was accused of alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave that was held in Pune in December 2017. The Police arrested Rao because his speech on 31st December 2017 was one of the reasons that triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of Pune. The Police also alleged that the organisers of the event have Maoist links. NIA was handed over the investigation in the matter. On August 28, 2018, Rao was arrested at his Hyderabad residence. FIR against him was lodged by Pune Police on January 8, 2018, under several Sections of the IPC and UAPA. He was later granted bail. Islamo-leftists have long been maligning Hindutva. Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla had also previously equated Hindutva with Zionism. While the ilk of Varsha, Zionism is a genocidal ideology, she never really explained that if Hindutva is a twin of Zionism, which genocide have the ‘Hindu nationalists’ ever committed. Unsurprisingly, Varsha, who supports Palestine and the Islamic terrorist group Hamas, was upset with India attacking Islamic terror establishments in Pakistan in May 2025 after the Pahalgam attack. “Disturbing to not see a single anti-war political leader in India today. With zero space for anything other than jingoism in the public media, the drums of war beat across the political spectrum,” she wrote. Varsha’s social media and work at Progressive International largely revolve around the Israel-Palestine conflict and the supposed ‘genocide’ in Gaza. She, however, never raised her voice for Hindus being persecuted in Pakistan and Bangladesh by Islamic fanatics. Varsha also contributes to leftist propaganda portal The Wire.