Hindu leaders silently supporting rightwing British party By Sanjay Suri, Indo-Asian News Service
London, Apr 28 (IANS) Several Hindu leaders have begun silently supporting the far-right British National Party in local elections in towns hit by race riots last year. Rioting in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley towns, the worst that Britain has seen in 20 years, had led to continuing clashes between white youths and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis on the other, but did not involve any youths of Indian origin. The BNP has since then made a policy shift from opposing all immigrants to opposing Muslim immigrants. The BNP has set up an Ethnic Liaison Committee to launch a joint effort with Sikhs and Hindus. Sikh and Hindu leaders in the area are believed to have given their support to a Campaign Against Islam launched by the BNP. The BNP has been distributing CDs and audio tapes of its policies which include a warning to the British people by someone who describes himself as Sikh and who talks of his father hacked to death by mobs during the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. Several leaders have warned that the BNP is using Hindu and Sikh leaders for tactical purposes and has not given up its anti-immigrant policies. Continuing talks between BNP leader Nick Griffin and Hindu and Sikh leaders since then is now finding expression in the local elections due May 2, according to both BNP leaders and Hindu leaders. "We have had the support of Hindus and Sikhs before and now we have that support again," a leader at the BNP campaign office told IANS. The support earlier came in a by-election in Burnley in November 2001 when the BNP took 19 percent of the vote in Trinity Ward and 23 percent of the vote in Lower House ward. Hindu leaders have stopped short of boasting of the alliance with the BNP publicly. But Hasmukh Shah, one of the most influential Hindu leaders in north England, was reported to have met Griffin about that time. Several other leaders within the Indian community warned against any deal with rightwing racists. The BNP's Burnley organiser, local accountant Steve Smith, said after the by-election results: "Our rapidly rising vote shows that it's only a matter of time before we win in Burnley. Just over a couple of years ago we only had two members in the town; now we're getting more than one in five votes." --Indo-Asian News Service =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
