*Indian diaspora protests RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s UK visit*
London: Indian diaspora organisations staged a protest at Parliament Square against the visit of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to the United Kingdom.
According to Kashmir Media Service, twenty groups including the South Asia Solidarity Group (SASG) organised the protest. Holding placards condemning Hindutva crimes in India, participants chanted anti-fascist and anti-RSS slogans and denounced Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anti-minority pogroms.
SASG organiser Kalpna Wilson said the RSS “got its inspiration from the Nazis and from Mussolini’s fascists” and cited the organisation’s hostility toward Muslims. She also flagged the RSS’s links with UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson and accused the RSS’s UK affiliate, HSS, of instigating Islamophobic violence in Leicester.
Wilson further said Modi “has turned India into the biggest ally of the genocidal Zionist entity” and noted India is the largest buyer of Israeli weapons, “tested on Palestinians and used against the Kashmiri people.”
Other speakers included Satpal Munan, Chairman of Caste Watch UK; Naim Budhiuzzaman of Indian Muslim Council (UK); and Rajiv Sinha of Hindus for Human Rights.
USCIRF calls for sanctions against RSS ahead of Mohan Bhagwat’s US visit
The organisations had earlier written to the UK Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Foreign Office, demanding a boycott, condemnation and sanctions against Bhagwat and other RSS leaders.
Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn expressed solidarity, stating “Britain should not be hosting the leader of a hate group with a grievous history of far-right violence.”
Bhagwat, who has visited the US and Canada, is currently touring Western countries.
Critics say the RSS, parent body of Modi’s BJP, has spearheaded a violent campaign against minorities, Dalits and other marginalised communities. Founded in 1925 by Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur, the RSS advocates a “Hindu Rashtra” and provides martial training to volunteers.
