UK MPs condemn Hindutva activist spreading anti-Sikh hate

The Labour Party’s Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi is among a group of MPs that have condemned the divisive actions of a notorious Hindutva (Hindu extremist) figure spreading anti-Sikh hate.

Rashmi Mishra is an open Hindutva activist that made recent headlines for pushing plans to stage a Hindutva demonstration in Leicester, just months after violence erupted in the city between Hindus and Muslims, with many suggesting this was triggered by Hindutva demonstrations. Speaking to The Telegraph, Tanmanjeet Singh said Mishra is “seeking to divide communities”.

Slough MP Dhesi was joined by fellow Labour MPs Claudia Webbe and Virendra Sharma in condemning the fanatical Hindutva figure’s actions in The Telegraph article. Mishra was exposed as being behind a notorious tweet from the “Inspiring Indian Women” account (since deleted) which threatened Sikhs with another genocide, causing Southall MP Sharma to resign as a patron of the group. This is said to be just one example of her anti-Sikh rhetoric, with Mishra also said to be behind Hindutva WhatsApp propaganda, which is known to be a source of inflammatory misinformation.

Mishra has close ties to another former patron of the now defunct Indian women’s group, Conservative House of Lords member and fellow Indian ultranationalist Rami Ranger, with some even accusing her of being paid by Ranger to run campaigns against those exposing their divisive agenda. Ranger has won the ire of UK Sikhs many-a-time for his advocation of Indian ultranationalist anti-Sikh rhetoric, and even replication of their tactics, seen when he threatened a UK Sikh community figure with violence openly in a Tweet.

In efforts to stop the influence of the divisive agenda of Mishra, UK Hindu groups have begun work exposing her hate-spreading. Despite Mishra being the focus of current efforts to curtail the growing influence of Hindutva, she is by no means believed to be the only mouthpiece of India’s fascist regime in the UK. Recently MP Bob Blackman of Harrow East, an area with a strong Hindu population, was found to be taking funding from groups linked to the Indian regime. Blackman has been pictured posing in parliament with Mishra.

Speaking on the issue, Sikh Press Association Senior Press Officer Jasveer Singh said:

“The role of figures like Rashmi Mishra and at a higher-level Bob Blackman and Rami Ranger, is to justify the well-known fascist actions of the Indian state, and further still attempt to rally people behind it. India is plagued by corruption and intolerance at all levels, but many people profit from this system of governance, so they fanatically defend it by attacking anyone exposing it under the guise of protecting the Hindu nation. This is what Hindutva does for India.

“Through a faith mandate, the Sikh community are bound to exposing the injustice and tyranny of nations like India, where Sikhs often suffer like all minorities do in the country. As such, the Sikh community becomes targets for fanatics like Mishra. It is great that well-intentioned Hindus and MPs are now being more vocal about this Hindutva influence in the UK.

“However, there needs to be real investigations into how deep this goes. In Germany, three Indian intelligence spies targeting Sikhs have been arrested in recent years. In Canada, security experts have been open about Indian intelligence ‘harassing’ Sikhs. Many UK Sikhs believe something similar is happening here but our authorities do not seem to be investigating it. Instead, we get undue focus on ‘Sikh extremism’, which in itself is revealing, especially when Indian media have claimed ‘diplomatic pressure’ is used to get UK authorities to target Sikh activists, which has not resulted in findings of any crimes.

“The UK Sikh community will be hoping the exposing of dangerous Hindutva fanatics like Rashmi Mishra is just the beginning of efforts to deal with Hindutva in the UK.”