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Starmer should not be parroting Hindu nationalist talking points

by · 9th October, 2022

Two pictures of Keir Starmer participating in a Hindu celebration. In one he is holding a plate with a candle and other unidentifiable objects on it; in the second he is sitting with two South Asian men at a table as part of a panel. He has a red dot on his forehead in both.
Keir Starmer at Navatri, India Gardens in London last week (source: Navendu Mishra MP)

Last week the Labour leader Keir Starmer, who polls suggest is now likely to easily win any general election held in the next couple of years (and one is due no later than December 2024, though elections are usually held in May), addressed a Hindu Navatri celebration in London where he reportedly said, “Hinduphobia has absolutely no place in our society anywhere and we must all fight this together”, according to Eastern Eye (a British Indian newspaper and website with an apparently all-Hindu executive board) which gave ‘PTI’ as a source. (See previous post.) He continued:

I know that many people are targeted based on their religion and there’s been a rise in hate crimes in recent years. I’m so tired of our divisive politics. I’m saddened by the division we have seen on the streets of Leicester and Birmingham in recent weeks; violence and hatred spread by extremists exploiting social media. We must all together stand firm against all attempts to spread hate. Nor will we tolerate the far right attempting to exploit grievances. We have more that unites us than divides us. Our religion, places and symbols of worship must and will be respected. A Labour government will bring people back together and end this divisive politics.

The Stockport Labour MP Navendu Mishra (who took the attached picture) also reported approvingly that Starmer had made remarks to this effect and “spoke about the important contribution of the Hindu community to the UK”. In another tweet Mishra wrote:

A very important statement from the UK’s next PM @Keir_Starmer. Racism has no place in society. This isn’t a case of Right vs Left, but a case of right vs wrong. We must have zero tolerance against all forms of racism, including Hinduphobia.

It’s greatly irresponsible to give this seal of approval to claims of a prejudice for which there is very little evidence, especially in the context of the violence in Leicester which has been reported as having been provoked not by ‘Hinduphobia’ by Muslims or anyone else, but by a group of extremist Hindus recently arrived from Gujarat. It would have been quite proper for him to address racism generally, as Hindus have been as much the target of white racism as any other ethnic minority, but ‘Hinduphobia’ is a talking point of the nationalist Hindu Far Right and a brief look at tweets containing the term on Twitter show that most of them come from nationalists and a lot of them contain hatred towards Muslims.

While British Hindus generally have not been violent towards Muslims, there is a substantial body of support for the BJP, under whose rule violence against the Muslim minority has grown dramatically, often under the noses of police who do nothing, as has the legal oppression which has spread to places it previously had not reached, such as Karnataka in the south. The catalogue of atrocities does not need rehashing here. We see British Hindus fill Wembley stadium to see a prime minister who, as governor of Gujarat in 2002, oversaw a pogrom against Muslims that killed thousands. Disgracefully, British MPs on both sides of the House, and both white and Asian (and not all Hindu), have congratulated Modi when he has won elections. They will no doubt remind us that Modi has been cleared of personal involvement; the fact that it is his movement and his party.

Starmer should not be indulging claims to victimhood from people who support this violent, fascistic movement in India. Current polls suggest that Labour is easily on track to win a general election in the near future with or without the support of Hindu chauvinists and has no need to indulge their bigotry or false victimhood. Labour are supposed to be a party that is opposed to racism and fascism and in support of social justice; he should not have repeated this claim without calling on his audience to renounce their support for the BJP and the oppressive regime it and the mass movement behind it have perpetrated against India’s Muslims. If they will not sit down with the Muslim Council of Britain because they refuse to condemn terrorism on cue, they should call out the supporters of mob terror against our brothers and sisters in India as well.

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