Britain’s African, Asian Organisations Accuse Indian Government of Justifying the Murder of Congolese National and Attacks on Africans in India, Demand Action.
By MM Special Correspondent,
London: UK-based influential South Asian and African organizations have urged the Indian government to check the rising tide of attacks on Africans in India. Around ten organizations, in a letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stated that they in Britain were horrified and dismayed at these recent developments. The letter also alleged that the racist ideology deeply embedded in the India’s ruling party.
The letter details the killing of Masonda Kitanda Oliver, the attack on Nigerian priest Kenneth Igbinosa as he returned home with his wife and four-month-old son and a number of other recent attacks, as well as the responses from BJP cabinet ministers and politicians which it says have ‘trivialised [the attacks] and denied or deflected their racist nature, or even implicitly justified them’.
“The attempt of the government to reframe these attacks as criminal acts rather than racially motivated hate crimes allows the Indian Government to try to safeguard its economic interests in Africa whilst denying the racist ideology deeply embedded in your own party and administration, clearly demonstrated when the Tourism minister in Goa (a state ruled by your party), Dilip Parulekar, commented with overt racism that Nigerians make trouble in India and ought to be deported.”
It goes on to say ‘We in Britain are horrified and dismayed at these recent developments. Not only do Indians and other South Asians living in Britain face racism and racist violence, but there is a long history of people of African and South Asian origin working together in solidarity to confront and challenge British racism’ and urges PM Modi to ensure that ‘(1) immediate action is taken to bring those responsible for the recent racist attacks – including those politicians indulging in racist hate-speech like Dilip Parulekar – to justice, (2) that the survivors and the families of the victims are provided with all possible support and assistance by your government and (3) and that the government of India takes immediate steps for the development and systematic implementation of policies which aim to confront and eradicate racism in India at all levels as a matter of the utmost urgency’.
The letter signed by Hana Sandhu, South Asia Solidarity Group, Explo Nani-Kofi, Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination, Ghana and London, Asad Rehman, Newham Monitoring Project, Esther Stanford-Xosei, Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe,Naeem Malik, South Asian Alliance,Jendayi Serwah, Global Afrikan People’s Parliament (GAPP),Nirmala Rajasingam, Freedom Without Fear Platform and others