On average, five Pakistani flight attendants slip into Canada each year ::::::::: Rise of 'Christian nationalism' in West to boost right wing pro-Hindutva politics of Modi

On an average, five Pakistani flight attendants slip into Canada each year. 

Representational image: 'India Today'

'Thank You PIA': Pakistani air hostesses fly to Canada, and 'vanish'

Maryam Raza, a cabin crew member of Pakistan International Airlines, flew to Canada and didn't board the return flight. She left behind a note thanking PIA. Maryan Raza is one of the several PIA staffers who have sought asylum in Canada in recent years.

In 2023, seven PIA staffers disappeared in Canada to seek asylum

PIA spokesperson blames it on Canada's 'liberal' asylum programme

A note saying, "Thank you, PIA (Pakistan International Airlines)," was found in a Toronto hotel room after a search.

An appreciation note, like this, is what a flight attendant would expect to find from a flyer after a nice and cosy flight. However, the note saying, ‘Thank you, PIA', was actually written by an air hostess, and not a satisfied flyer.  

The note was from Maryam Raza, who worked with the PIA and had landed in Toronto on a flight from Islamabad on Monday (February 26) but didn't report for duty on her return flight to Karachi a day later.

When authorities looking for Maryam opened her hotel room, they found her PIA uniform with the ‘Thank you, PIA’ note, reported Dawn. Maryam Raza isn't the lone example of a PIA crew member landing in Canada and vanishing into thin air. In fact, she was just following a trend.

Maryam's disappearance comes just a month after PIA flight attendant Faiza Mukhtar's disappearance in Canada in January 2024. Faiza Mukhtar, who was rostered to fly back to Karachi a day after landing in Canada "did not board the flight and disappeared", said PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan.

PIA CREW MEMBERS SEEKING CANADA ASYLUM SINCE 2018

The disappearances of crew members, Maryam and Faiza, actually follow a worrying trend for the PIA, which is itself battling financial and credibility losses. The disappearance of Maryam marks the second such instance in 2024.

It's probably no longer the PIA that Jacqueline Kennedy called, "Great people to fly with", in 1962. That has become the slogan of PIA since then.

In fact, Pakistan isn't the same Pakistan of the 60s. Surviving on loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and international doles, Pakistan has seen record brain drain in 2023. Unsure about their future in Pakistan, skilled professionals have been leaving the Islamic Republic in hordes.

The trend of Pakistani flight attendants disappearing after crewing a flight to Canada started back in 2019 and has picked up recently, according to aviation news website Simple Flying. However, The Media Line, a 'Mideast '-based news website, claims to have received information about PIA flight attendants seeking asylum in Canada and other countries as early as 2018.

Rise of 'Christian nationalism' in US and other western countries to boost right wing pro-Hindutva politics of Modi and BJP

"The rise of religious nationalism in Christendom, in parallel with the consolidation of the BJP as the dominant force in the Indian polity, could mark a major break in the evolution of India’s internationalism," says strategic expert and foreign policy watcher C Raja Mohan 

in an 'Indian Express' article.

"Over the last century, India’s global political connections were shaped by India’s communist, socialist and Congress parties that built ties with the left and centre-left forces in Europe. 

The decline of the communist parties in the West has been matched by the marginalisation of the Indian communists," he says.

Now, the fall of Russian leader Vladmir Putin’s star among evangelical Americans leaves a void they will seek to fill by lionising another foreign strongman leader devoted to a ‘family values’ platform. 

If this does prove to be the case, a very likely candidate is the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, a thorn in the side of the EU.

Viktor specializes in what is being stated as “illiberal democracy” and has also  stifled dissent against his hardline, nativist, socially conservative agenda.

The Hungarian president is already the darling of certain far-Right Americans, such as the arch-reactionary writer Rod Dreher, a convert to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. 

On the backdrop this context, Raja Mohan notes:  

"Unlike Congress and the Left, the RSS and the BJP have less of an internationalist history. This is unsurprising given their nativist roots. This could change as the nativists around the world go global. Over the last few decades, the BJP has begun to connect, if tentatively, with political parties in other countries."

As it expanded at home in the last decade, the BJP has enhanced its outreach to the diplomatic missions in Delhi as well as foreign political parties under the “Get to know the BJP” initiative. Christian Democrats and other conservative parties in Europe, too, have been knocking at the BJP’s door.

"It is not clear if Christian nationalists can overturn liberal hegemony in the US and Europe, but they are bound to make some difference to Western polities, domestically and internationally. 

This could open up new international possibilities for both the BJP and the Modi government, which have often locked horns with the Western liberal establishments in recent years," says the article.

Meanwhile, a piece in 'Open Democracy' says:

"....the Christian Broadcasting Network, which was founded by notorious culture warrior Pat Robertson and has been unequivocally critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has begun to cautiously praise Orbán for harbouring Ukrainian refugees and hosting NATO forces for a show of strength against Russia, while at the same time “making it clear he’s on Hungary’s side, no matter what”.

With this in mind, and given the general right-wing American embrace of Orbán that is well under way, it is likely that the American Christian Right will move to build closer ties to the Hungarian premier, the Fidesz party and Christian structures inside Hungary.

It’s important to keep an eye on these developments for those of us concerned about international coalitions working to oppose women’s and LGBTQ rights, whether or not Orbán comes to loom as large among America’s elite evangelicals as Putin once did.

Advani's Quote in 1991 

C Raja Mohan also writes:

"America’s Christian “nationalism” is going “international”. In Europe, variants of Christian nationalism are on the rise and are boosting far-right political parties. 

The European agenda is similar to the American one — opposition to immigration, especially Muslims, the protection of traditional European culture, rejection of gender rights, and promotion of family values under threat from the liberal hegemony over social life. 

Connections are being forged between the Christian nationalists across the Atlantic. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other European leaders who support traditional values have been lionised by Christian nationalists in the US. A surprising figure on that list is Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who has put religion and ethno-nationalism at the top of his political agenda. 

The Christian nationalist enthusiasm for Putin is one factor behind the current deep American divisions on Ukraine, notes the article. 

Here quoting from an article in 'The Guardian' in 2020 could be relevant to reflect upon.

“Europe can ignore or deny or struggle against its own identity and its Christian roots. But by doing so the society commits suicide,” said László Kiss-Rigó, the bishop of Szeged, as he drove into Budapest on a recent afternoon. “And the more migrants that come, the more Christian values will be watered down.”

Christian values, or a particular interpretation of them, have become the centrepiece of Hungarian government messaging under its far-right leader, Viktor Orbán, and Kiss-Rigó operates at the nexus of the prime minister’s interests.

As well as his role as bishop, he is also the chairman of Szeged’s local football team, which is owned by the church. He was in Budapest to make arrangements for the inaugural concert at a new multipurpose stadium, which will be opened later this summer with an appearance by Placido Domingo – just one part of the massive investment that the football-mad Orbán has made into the sport."

Finally, take note of what C Raja Mohan writes: 

"The rise of “Christian nationalism” in the US and its growing resonance across the Western world is likely to open some interesting intersections with the BJP and the Indian government in the widely expected third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Traditionally, India has had little engagement with the Christian political formations in the US and the West. That has begun to change in the last few years, as many of these conservative forces reach out to the BJP."

ends