London: From the past three days, reports have been doing circles in the British media stating that the Hindu voters of the country through Whatsapp messages have been asked to vote against a particular party in the upcoming general election, accusing the party of being “anti-India” and “anti-Hindu”.
It is further reportedly said that those Whatsapp messages also consists videos by far-right anti-Muslim activists and have raised fears they are attempting to exploit tensions between British Pakistanis and Indians, as well as different religious groups.
“The Labour party is now the mouth-piece of the Pakistani government … It is anti-India, anti-Hindu and anti-[Indian prime minister Narendra] 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,” said one of the message doing rounds and reported in a British daily vernacular.
This attempt of electoral vote polarisation and meddling in the electoral process of a foreign country by pro- Hindutva forces is not a new phenomenon. A couple of months back there was a report in the Canadian media that claimed that the Canadian Security and Intelligence Services (CSIS) had prepared a list of countries that were either directly or indirectly trying to influence the outcome of Canada’s federal elections, and the name of Indian government also cropped up in that list.
It can also be concluded that based upon the increase in activism among overseas diaspora against the repressive policies adopted by the Indian state against the struggling nationalities of the sub-continent. The pro-Hindutva forces under the veil of so-called “Indian culture” or superficial Indianess are trying to manipulate the Hindu voters to vote a particular party in power so that the overseas space of activism and voices of the struggling groups could be capped and curbed upto certain extent.
Furthermore, in a report published by The Guardian, it was stated that at the foot of the message was the name Kapil Dudakia and on the top of the message it was written: “Pass this to every true Indian.”
Moreover, it is also reported by The Guardian that Kapil Dudakia also spoke at a Diwali event in the House of Commons hosted by the Tory MP Bob Blackman last month, from which Labour MPs were reportedly banned.
Moreover, Kuldeep Singh Shekhawat, the president of Overseas Friends of BJP (a political offshoot of Hindu supremacist group RSS) the UK , in his statement to the Indian media outlet stated that they are actively engaged and campaigning in 48 marginal seats for a particular party in the upcoming British elections.
“If the entire Indian (Hindu) 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,” reads the statement of Kuldeep Singh Shekhawat in an English vernacular.
At a party conference in September, Labour enraged the BJP when it passed a motion calling for humanitarian and international observers to enter the disputed region of Kashmir. The motion came after Delhi’s decision in August to revoke the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir.