No matter how many “political groomers” Labour sends to India, actions that speak honesty and consistency, political maturity and statecraft are the need of the day

The bond of loyalty maintained for so many decades by the British Indian community with the Labour party will never be restored

A community meeting was held at the Southbank Riverside Terrace on 20th August 2019, a meeting called by victims of the criminal assaults and hate crimes which happened at the Indian High Commission on the 15th August 2019. Traumatised mothers, angry fathers and other community leaders met to consider the impact of what had happened and to decide on the best response and way forward. The following is an extract of the minutes of the meeting kept by Shri M Karelia of the Global Hindu Federation.

Present: Shri Virendra Sharma (VS) MP (Labour Party) & Chair of the Indo British APPG, Smt. Trupti Patel (HFB President), Pt. Satish K Sharma (SKS) (NCHTUK General Secretary), Shri Mukesh Karelia (GHF Communications Director), Smt. M Jaiswal (Director IIL), NB, AJ, Dr VK, Dr HJ, Dr NS, MG, MT, PP, CKN, DJ some of whom were victims of the recent violence.

The meeting elected SKS as Chair. The Chair thanked everyone and asked if Virendra Sharma (VS) as a busy Parliamentarian was limited retime, in which case the Chair would prioritise the agenda to accommodate him, VS stated that he had ample time.

On behalf of the meeting, the Chair referred to multiple letters written by Labour MP’s recently criticising India and asked VS if he was able to provide a letter of support addressed to the Police authorities, on behalf of the victims of the attacks and condemning the protestors for their violence.

VS said “No” and when asked why by the Chair, VS advised that the issue of Article 370 was a complex one and there were many aspects of it which would need to be considered and that he did not wish to elaborate further.

The Twittersphere responded with a new name for Tan Dhesi, “#TwoFacedTan” and many British Indians and Sikhs condemned his duplicity as harmful to the Sikh reputation and at odds with the Gurus teachings regarding honour, humility and honesty in all things.

The Chair clarified for VS that the letter requested was not connected with Article 370, but was specifically to do with the criminal violence and hate crimes directed at British Indians by pro-Pakistan criminals outside the Indian High Commission.

VS stated that the trouble was that the Hindu community was not organised, there was no coherent voice and that because of this confusion they were unable to lobby Parliamentarians and that this was the problem.

The Chair again clarified that this was nothing to do with lobbying Parliament but a simple request to help ensure that the existing law was applied and that the attackers were brought to justice. The Chair rejected the proposition that faulty disorganised lobbying was relevant and reminded the meeting that as far as credibility, coherence and unanimity were concerned, all political parties seemed unable to attain the standard and state being required of the British Indian community by VS. With regard to engagement, the Chair advised the meeting that he had met and requested Jeremy Corbyn in person, on two occasions, to engage with the British Indian Community on key issues and had been rejected.

The Chair advised that the NCHT (UK) had sought to engage with VS and present evidence on the Caste issue and been rejected out of hand. The Chair advised that he had only last month reached out to Labour MP Matt Weston in an effort to open dialogue and having met him shared concerns but that there had been no response and that this effort too had failed to achieve any progress.

The Chair suggested that this response from VS was a deflection and again requested VS to provide said letter.

VS advised that he too was a Hindu and the meeting should accept that he understood everyone’s feelings but that each MP was answerable to his constituency and therefore he was unable to provide such a letter.

The Chair asked VS why he was present if he was unable to assist our community due to constituency constraints, to which VS replied that he was present to hear the community concerns, VS further stated that had he known that the Chair would have been present, he would not have attended the meeting.

The Chair addressed the meeting and advised them to understand precisely what had been learned, what VS’s statements meant and the practical impact of his position. The essence of what VS was saying was that despite the fact that a hate crime, a violent attack on our mothers, sisters and daughters using bottles, eggs and potatoes, with attackers carrying at least one large knife, had been committed on the streets of London, our British Hindu Indian MP was unable to write a letter to the Police authorities on our behalf. That VS ‘s statement established that an Indian origin British Parliamentarian was refusing to assist Indian origin British citizens in their pursuit of justice and protection, following a violent attack during an unauthorised protest by pro-Pakistan criminals, comprising of a mob of in excess of 4,000.

The essence of what VS was saying was that despite the fact that a hate crime, a violent attack on our mothers, sisters and daughters using bottles, eggs and potatoes, with attackers carrying at least one large knife, had been committed on the streets of London, our British Hindu Indian MP was unable to write a letter to the Police authorities on our behalf.

The Chair reminded the meeting that it was disappointing that Labour party MP’s such as Jon Ashworth MP Leicester, were able to write to the Prime Minister, to the United Nations, to Secretary of State Dominic Raab and others, expressing their concern for citizens of Kashmir, 6,000 miles away but our “own” VS was not willing to write a similar letter indicating support and expressing concern for the legal rights, safety and well-being of British Hindus who had suffered actual violence here in London.

The Chair addressed VS and suggested that if he was not willing to assist due to his “constituency issues”, it was inappropriate for the persons present to share any information with him and that his continued presence was unnecessary. The Chair remarked that the Youtube video of VS at the Southall Mosque, reversing his earlier Parliamentary statement regarding Pakistan as a sponsor of terrorism, provides perhaps an example of the pressures to which VS was alluding.

VS indicated his unhappiness with the exchange, in a decidedly “unParliamentary” manner and left the meeting.

The Chair reminded the meeting that Parliamentarians were public servants bound by undertakings to act in the interests of British citizens, a duty of care as Public servants and multiple Parliamentary Standards and obligations and that VS’s behaviour was far short of reasonably expected standards. The Chair suggested that in future, the fawning and adoring manner in which many Indians met Parliamentarians should be reconsidered.

The following day, on the 21st August, Labour’s Tanmanjeet Dhesi, MP for Slough visited New Delhi to hold meetings with Ministers and members of the BJP. Dhesi, who had only days before issued a statement condemning the revocation of Article 370 and accusing, without evidence, the Indian Government of Human Rights abuses, presented a very pro India position whilst engaged in these meetings, completely at odds with his statements made here in the UK. When this duplicity was discovered, Indian Government Aviation Minister Puri immediately declared that had he been aware of Dhesi’s unfounded allegations and criticism of India, he would not have agreed to meet with Dhesi.

The Twittersphere responded with a new name for Tan Dhesi, “#TwoFacedTan” and many British Indians and Sikhs condemned his duplicity as harmful to the Sikh reputation and at odds with the Gurus teachings regarding honour, humility and honesty in all things. Considering that the Sikh community came into being when Hindus decided that they had no option but to become martial in order to defeat the Muslim invaders, it is doubly tragic and a greater betrayal that the first Turbaned Sikh in Parliament, would be so deceitful as to support the Islamist insurgents responsible for the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Hindus from Kashmir, whilst presenting himself as pro India.

After years of taking the Indian vote bank for granted, whilst at the same time denigrating and vilifying Indians in the UK, as well as simultaneously smearing India’s BJP, it’s clear that duplicity has become systemic in terms of Labours dealings with Indians and especially British Hindus. The British Indian relationship with Labour is today at a nadir.

With Jeremy Corbyn having repeatedly smeared and then having effectively banned CM Modi from visiting the UK, having snubbed PM Modi by not attending the Parliamentary Address accorded to PM Modi as an honour by the British Parliament, and then having to eat humble pie with a last-minute car-crash meeting with PM Modi before his departure, by having made support for the Pakistani position on Kashmir a manifesto pledge and having tried to foist the wholly un-evidenced and colonialistically paternalistic Caste Legislation upon the British Hindu Community, British Indians are detecting the unmistakable stench of anti-India anti-Modi Hinduphobia in the air.

The attacks upon vulnerable British Indian families peacefully celebrating Independence Day in Londons Aldwych area, followed by silence from the Labour front benches, a flat denial from Virendra Sharma and a deluge of anti-India rhetoric from almost 50 Labour MP’s, all serve to confirm what many have suspected, Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s’ leadership, has as Bob Blackman MP stated in his letter to the Secretary of State, become an anti-India, anti-Hindu, anti-Modi party. Virendra Sharma’s statements to the meeting of British Hindus have for most who were present, confirmed this to be the case.

Faced with the spectre of a looming General election where the margins may be critical and where Labour lag by almost 15 points in recent opinion polls, our sources tell us that Labours “political grooming gang” is being dispatched to Delhi to try and salvage some shred of credibility with the British Hindu Community.

Jeremy Corbyn tweeted a “Happy Janamashtami” tweet in which he graciously and from upon high, remarked favourably upon the Hindu religion and many British Hindus will have noted with disappointment, the modus operandi of the “serial political groomer” at play

Since Labour Party policy is so toxically anti-India and so unjustifiably pro Pakistan, their task is clearly to “groom” as many Politicians as possible. The coming days and weeks may well see a flurry of meetings with Indian politicians, preferably of the BJP type. Tan Dhesi is already there, and we have seen the unacceptable lack of integrity in his engagement already. We understand that Jon Ashworth MP is getting ready as well and Virendra Sharma is also already there. We may well see the interesting spectacle of Virendra Sharma, the son and protégé of the late Dr. Lekh Raj Sharma, one of the Congress party’s most robust pillars, avoiding the debris of the current Congress party whilst desperately currying favour with the BJP politicians, wherever and whenever possible. It would be no surprise for Seema Malhotra MP to follow them, to engage in as many selfie moments as possible in the hope that a flood of “social media smiles” will placate the British Indian voter, as we approach a General Election.

Since none of the members of this “political grooming gang” have spoken out to criticise the blatant anti-Indian incitement to hatred, engaged in by the likes of Labours Honourable Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham, due to appear in court on 2nd December2019 charged with serious sexual assaults upon minors as well two counts of rape of an underage girl, it’s obvious that the image these Labour MP’s will present in India will be at odds with their public positions and image here in the UK.

It was the wilful neglect of the human rights of British children throughout the Midlands by these same Labour Parliamentarians which delayed justice from reaching the thousands of victims of the predominantly Labour Council related “rape grooming gangs” which devastated so many young lives in the North of England. All observers will recall the courage of Sarah Champion Labour MP, in challenging the “rape grooming gangs” and how she was forced to resign following criticism of an opinion piece she wrote for The Sun that discussed what she termed the “problem” of white girls being raped and exploited by British Pakistani men, and which fellow Labour MP Naz Shah described as “incendiary and irresponsible”.

Today in India, these Labour Parliamentarians and their “political grooming gang” can be expected to wield equal levels of duplicity whilst concealing despicable motives, feigned friendships forged with false smiles, and a further corruption of the declining standards which the public has begun to associate with the “favoured vote-bank” obsessed Labour Party of Corbyn and McDonald.

Yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn tweeted a “Happy Janamashtami” tweet in which he graciously and from upon high, remarked favourably upon the Hindu religion and many British Hindus will have noted with disappointment, the modus operandi of the “serial political groomer” at play. Duplicity which on the one hand seeks to cause harm and actively discriminates against British Hindus, which vilifies and denigrates Hindus for vote-bank advantage, whilst at the same time, sends tacky messages of insincere affection to the same intended victim.

It’s a tragedy that Labour MP’s generally and Labour MP’s of Indian origin specifically, have succumbed to a compulsion which requires them to allocate resources to represent a non “tax-paying”, “non British” constituency 6,000 miles away, at a time when British taxpayers are in dire need of the highest quality of political representation and the complete focussed attention of their Parliamentary representatives on hugely important affairs such as child protection, jobs and of course Brexit and its ramifications.

For Britain, it’s a national tragedy, that based upon the actions and statements of over 50 Labour Parliamentarians, especially frontbenchers, Labour have abandoned even the interests of their core white British working-class voters in favour of the Pakistani lobby. It should be of great concern to the union leaders supporting Jeremy Corbyn that the consequences of such blatant discrimination and such ideological hostility against India and Hindus, will be to place in jeopardy post-Brexit trade deals so vital for jobs in the UK. No matter how many “political groomers” are sent to India, honesty and consistency, political maturity and statecraft and the genuine desire for mutual benefit cannot be replaced by shallow gestures of fake friendship.

Once tragically broken, the bond of loyalty maintained for so many decades by the British Indian community with the Labour party, will never be restored. If the catalyst for this rupture is the Labour Party declaring by its actions, its unconditional support for the failed Islamic State of Pakistan, a state recently blacklisted for global money laundering, whose own Hindu community has been reduced from 24% to 2% and whose other minorities face daily persecution, the loss may well be terminal for Labour and what is beyond doubt is that history will record that Jeremy Corbyn, either by deliberate design or simply by political incompetence, was directly responsible.

Note:

1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.