UK Labour Party accused of 'divisive' politics with poll leaflet featuring PM Modi
London, Jun 29: The UK's Opposition Labour Party was branded divisive and anti-India by Indian diaspora groups after a party leaflet for a by-election in northern England used an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The leaflet, in circulation for the Batley and Spen by-poll in West Yorkshire scheduled for Thursday, shows Modi in a handshake with Conservative Party Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the G7 Summit in 2019 with the message Don't risk a Tory MP who is not on your side .
It triggered furious reactions across social media after Tory MP Richard Holden posted an image of it on Twitter, questioning whether it implies that Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer would not be seen in a handshake with the Indian Prime Minister.
Dear Keir Starmer, please can you explain this leaflet and clarify whether a Labour PM/politician would refuse to have any relationship with the world's largest democracy? Is this your message to 1.5 million+ members of the Indian diaspora in UK, questioned the Conservative Friends of India (CFIN) diaspora organisation.
The outrage was echoed from within the Labour Party ranks, with the Labour Friends of India (LFIN) diaspora group demanding the immediate withdrawal of the leaflet.
The Labour Party is right to call out Boris Johnson's lack of action following the conclusion that anti-Muslim sentiment remains a problem within the Conservative Party. It is unfortunate that the Labour Party used a picture of the Prime Minister of India, the world's largest democracy and one of the UK's closest friends, from the G7 meeting in 2019, on its leaflet, LFIN said in its statement.
Indian-origin veteran Labour MP Virendra Sharma also condemned the move as cheap divide and rule and dog-whistle politics not worthy of Labour.
The Labour Party will win by bringing people together and uniting the community, to do anything else will divide our community and play into Tory hands, said Sharma, who represents Ealing Southall in London a constituency with a large Indian diaspora presence.
Another Indian-origin Labour MP, Navendu Mishra, took to Twitter to declare that racism is alive and well within Labour .
A hierarchy of racism exists inside the party and some groups are seen as fair game for attacks based on religion/race/heritage, said Mishra, MP for Stockport in northern England.
Labour will not win by playing divide and rule politics against our communities. We will win based on a principled stance against racism and discrimination of all kinds inside and outside the party, he said.
The Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) group reacted by organising a letter of complaint to party leader Starmer, criticising the votebank politics of the campaign leaflet.
OFBJP objects to this kind of anti-India branding just for votebank politics. Such posters and statements are clearly a sign of divisive politics played by Labour, said OFBJP President Kuldeep Shekhawat.
Angry messages dominated the original Twitter post on social media, with many pointing out that it was Labour's perceived anti-India stance" that was among the factors behind its bruising defeat in the 2019 General Election under former leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The by-election in Batley and Spen, a traditional Labour stronghold, is seen as a crucial test of Starmer's leadership after the Opposition party fared poorly in recent byelections.
The by-poll this week follows the previous Labour MP, Tracy Brabin, stepping down after being elected Mayor of West Yorkshire and has Kim Leadbeater in the fray for the party, the sister of Jo Cox the Labour MP murdered near her constituency office in a far-right attack in June 2016.
.@AngelaRayner comes over like butter wouldn’t melt on @BBCr4today but @UKLabour are putting out this ? In #BatleyAndSpenByelection
— Richard Holden MP (@RicHolden) June 28, 2021
1) Would @Keir_Starmer not meet @narendramodi?
2) Labour are, again, playing the identity politics they have a go at @georgegalloway for! pic.twitter.com/7L1JhVlBiM
This is cheap divide and rule politics not worthy of the Labour party. @SadiqKhan won by bringing people together and uniting the community; we can do the same anywhere. To do anything else will divide our community and play into Tory hands. https://t.co/gQ7goBGgiq
— Virendra Sharma MP (@VirendraSharma) June 28, 2021
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
