British Premier "woos" Gujarati Hindus, Punjabi Sikhs, calls Labour Muslim candidate for London mayor "radical"
Is Britain's Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron following US Republican presidential aspirant Donald Trump in allegedly whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment? It would seem so, if a recent report the British newspaper “The Guardian” is any indication.
The daily has reported that Cameron thinks Zac Goldsmith, Conservative London mayoral candidate, “is the only sensible choice” for the city's London’s south Asian communities, particularly Gujarati Hindus and Punjabi Sikhs, especially when there is a need to be keep “streets safe from terrorist attacks”.
Cameron's open support Goldsmith has made the main opponent, Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan's team calling the prime minister's move as “insulting, divisive and intrusive”.
The daily said, “The prime minister has been criticised for sending out letters targeted at London’s Gujarati Hindu and Punjabi Sikh voters, calling on them to back the Conservative mayoral candidate, Zac Goldsmith.”
Khan’s team said, “It is desperately disappointing that David Cameron is indulging in this sort of divisive racial profiling.”
In his letter sent out the voters of the two communities, under the heading “The Gujarati community makes London great”, Cameron wrote: “Closer ties between the UK and India have been a priority for me as prime minister. I was pleased to join Zac and thousands of British Gujaratis in welcoming Prime Minister Modi to the UK last year.”
"The Guardian" recalls, “The Labour candidate did not attend the event to welcome the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, a leader who has divided opinion. Until 2012, Modi was barred from entering the UK over allegations that in 2002, when he was chief minister of Gujarat state, he failed to stop anti-Muslim riots in which 1,000 people died.”
“The Guardian” writes, “After receiving a letter, retired biochemist Barbara Patel wrote back to the PM, objecting to his 'facile and inaccurate attempt at racial profiling'. She said: 'You have made a number of assumptions based on my surname (Patel = Gujarat and Gujarat = Hindu) and have attempted to use these ethnically based assumptions to ‘scare’ me into voting for your candidate, Zac Goldsmith.”
“I am not from Gujarat. I am not a Hindu, my husband’s family are lapsed Muslims. Above all, I have never been, nor ever would be, a Tory voter”, Patel said, adding, she was of Jewish descent and “the most distasteful aspect” of Cameron's letter was “attempting to cause division between the London Hindu Indian community and its Muslim community”.
The daily says, “Goldsmith has already come under fire for sending out racially profiled letters to prospective voters, in which he described Khan as 'radical; and 'divisive'... and suggested gold and jewellery of Indian families would not be safe under him because he wanted to introduce a wealth tax.”
The daily adds, “Under the heading 'The risk of a Corbyn-Khan experiment', Cameron writes: 'The alternative is Jeremy Corbyn’s candidate, Sadiq Khan. If he wins Londoners will become lab rats in a giant political experiment. His dangerous and unworkable Corbyn-inspired policies would make housing more expensive for the vast majority'.”
“In London, 44% of the population comes from minority ethnic backgrounds, while hate crime against Muslims rose by 70% between 2014 and 2015. Similar letters have been sent to people with Sikh names, outlining the 'dangers' of Khan winning. Some of the letters were also sent to people who are not Sikh, but have Sikh-sounding names”, the daily says.
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