Indian-origin protesters turned their backs on London mayor Sadiq Khan of Labour Party during his Diwali celeb... Read More

LONDON: BJP supporters in Britain are actively campaigning for the Tories in 48 marginal seats in the UK general election on December 12 and telling Indian-origin voters not to vote Labour.

They claim the British Indian vote could swing up to 40 seats and affect the outcome of the election.

OFBJP UK president Kuldeep Singh Shekhawat said his group had identified 48 Labour-Conservative marginal seats which the British Indian vote could swing and was even trying to oust six Indian-origin Labour MPs.

This is the first time the OFBJP has ever extended open support for a party in a UK general election.

“We are doing this for three reasons. Firstly, some Labour MPs joined the violent protests outside India House on August 15 and September 3. Secondly, no Labour MPs spoke in favour of India in the House of Commons on Kashmir, and thirdly because of the Labour motion on Kashmir passed at their party conference. Kashmir is an internal matter of India. Why is the Labour party discussing the Indian state? We will only support MPs who support us,” Shekhawat said.

“We are working with the Tory candidates in Keith Vaz’s ex seat, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi’s seat, Preet Gill ’s seat, Lisa Nandy ’s seat, Seema Malhotra’s and Valerie Vaz’s seats,” he said. All six are Indian-origin Labour MPs.

“We are not supporting them because some of them have a Khalistani tag, they are not doing anything for us or looking at India as a sovereign nation. Some of them have signed letters against India. We will happily support anyone who supports India as a sovereign nation, including non-Indian origin candidates, against these candidates,” Shekhawat said.

“If the entire Indian community in the UK votes Tory, we will see a swing of around 40 seats to the Tories. This will swing the actual election result,” he declared.

Until now the Indian community in Britain has not voted en bloc — unlike the Pakistan community, which is directed by imams on how to vote. But now the OFBJP is approaching temples, social groups, and hundreds of Asian community bodies to tell them not to vote Labour. “We have met 37 groups so far and organised meetings in all the possible temples,” Shekhawat said.

He said they were supporting just one Labour PIO MP, Virendra Sharma, who represents Ealing Southall, as “he had stood up for the community”.

“Not a single Hindu will vote for Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi this time,” said Shekhawat. “Hindu voters think he is working closely with the Pakistani community. He is always seen with Pakistanis and goes to the Pakistan high commission. He is a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Britain-Pakistan Trade and Tourism and was vice-chair of the APPG Kashmir group. Why is that? The Indian community in Slough are annoyed and have decided to vote for the Tory candidate,” Shekhawat said.

“We have a team in each constituency which is going round with the Tory candidate leafleting, speaking to people and persuading them to vote Tory. The teams are organised by the BJP and Friends of India Society International (FISI),” the OFBJP UK president said.

The OFBJP has already organised their first “campaign meeting”. They invited 300 Indian-origin constituents on Sunday to a meeting with Tory MP Bob Blackman from Harrow East who has a majority of just 1,757 above Labour, and with Dr Anwara Ali who is standing for the Tories in Harrow West, which currently has a Labour MP with a majority of 13,314.

“Until December 2018 the majority of Indians supported Labour. But in the last seven to eight months Labour has shown a radical face. With Corbyn at the head, Labour is opposed to anything India wants to do and Corbyn never speaks good about India. Kashmir was the flashpoint. But anger was building up for months,” Shekhawat said.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, several dozen Indian-origin protesters turned their backs on London mayor Sadiq Khan during his Diwali celebrations in Trafalgar Square. As soon as Sadiq Khan came on stage to give a speech, 70 to 100 PIOs turned their backs, draped in the tricolour, in a silent protest.

“Our diversity is a strength, not a weakness… What makes me really proud is there are many people here today who are not Hindu. Isn’t that fantastic? ... London is open,” Khan said, not reacting to it.

The protest was planned by Reach India, set up by the Indian diaspora after the August 15 violent protests, to respond in a unified Gandhian way to hatred against Indians or India establishments. “We were turning our back against the mayor and the Labour Party,” said Nandini Singh from Swindon, one of the organisers. “He noticed it. It happened right in front of him. Even some non-Indians joined us. He fumbled his words a bit.”

