"The Labour Party is now the mouth-piece of the Pakistani government. It is anti-India, anti-Hindu and anti-Modi. So if there are any Indians who are still voting for Labour, or are still members of the Labour Party - then respectfully I say, they are traitors to their ancestral land, to their family and friends in India and to their cultural heritage.”
(WhatsApp message)
It appears that the Jewish community is no longer the only ethnic minority rising up against Corbyn in this election. Sikhs and Hindus are also organising opposition, spurred on by Labour's reliance on the Muslim vote and Islamist sympathies of the leadership. In the video below a speaker addresses a Hindu temple in Leeds urging worshippers to reject Corbyn's Labour and its support for "separatist jihadis".
A hard-hitting WhatsApp message campaign has also been launched, including the message at the top of this article. This message refers to Indian PM Narendra Modi and highlights anger over a recent part conference motion in which Labour called for international observers to be sent into Indian Kashmir. The motion also called for 'self determination' for the people of Kashmir, seen among British Sikhs and Hindus as support for Pakistan in the dispute and its desire to annexe Indian Kashmir.
Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) denounced the Hindu/Sikh campaign against Corbyn as 'divisive', but by abandoning neutrality in the Kashmir dispute surely it is Labour that is spreading disharmony? Certainly this was the message relayed to Corbyn in a letter following the conference motion. The letter was signed by representatives of a number of groups including the Hindu Council UK.
"Dear Mr Corbyn,
We are writing collectively, as British-Indian community organisations, to express our deep dismay that Her Majesty’s Opposition has abandoned a long-standing cross-party position on Kashmir as a strictly bilateral matter between India and Pakistan, and in doing so, sown the seeds of community disharmony in the United Kingdom.
The emergency motion passed at the recent Labour Party Conference is not acceptable to us as it seeks to interfere in the internal matters of, and between, third countries and is drafted in a one-sided and divisive manner.
We are also hugely concerned about the wider attempts to bring the Kashmir issue into the domestic politics of the United Kingdom, which has serious ramifications for community harmony”.
It's about time that Labour's pandering to the Muslim vote had some repercussions. They may well be a powerful ally in northern mill towns and inner city areas, but together the rest of us are bigger and stronger. If the estimated 900,000 voters of Indian origin turn against Labour, they could potentially swing the vote in dozens of constituencies. Labour's Singh Dhesi could also find himself in trouble in Slough.
Singh Dhesi stands out in the Commons due to his red turban, but he is facing a challenge this time around from a fellow Sikh - Tory candidate Kanwal Toor Gill. Native Brits are a minority in Slough and it has a big Asian population of which those of Indian descent outweigh those of Pakistani descent. At almost 17,000, his majority may be too much of an ask, but Slough also voted Leave in 2016 and Singh Dhesi is a Remainer. It could be interesting...
Slough general election 2017
Mark Vivis (Con) 17,172 (31.6%) -1.7%
Tom McCann (Lib Dem) 1,308 (2.4%) -0.2%
Karen Perez (UKIP) 1,228 (2.3%) -10.7%
Paul Janik (Ind) 417 (0.8%) New
