In a major revelation, Daily Mail reported that elements related to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allegedly fuelled tensions in Britain and are responsible for inciting British Hindus to confront Muslim youths.
According to the report citing a UK security source, it said: "There was evidence of BJP-linked activists using closed WhatsApp groups to encourage Hindu protesters to take to the streets."
However, the source also warned that "this was only the most egregious example of Indian Hindu nationalists using private social media posts to interfere in the UK."
"So far, it's mainly local politics — Modi and his BJP doing what they would do in Gujarat [Modi's home state] to get this or that local councillor elected," said the source.
"But it has to be stopped before it spreads to attempts to influence our national politics."
The Spokesperson of Insight UK said, “Indicative of poor journalistic standards, an article full of fiction and zero facts gets the nod of the editorial board of the mail online. The badly written piece ignores multiple incident reports by different independent think tanks about attacks on Hindus, their places of worship & property by Islamists during the Leicester violence. With vague references to unnamed sources, the article not only spins a wild tale but also gaslights the Hindu victims of Leicester violence.”
“We have written an open letter to the Daily Mail UK regarding the false and malicious article which without any credible evidence unfairly blames the BJP party and Hindus for the violence in Leicester. We ask for a rectification of the inaccuracies presented in the article or its complete retraction.”
While the Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network reacted on social media, “There are no "British Law Enforcement investigations" or reports on Leicester riots. This claim is false and misleading. The article by Pakistani-British Abdul Taher quotes a "UK security source".
Asian Voice reached out to members of the community in Leicester to understand their take on this revelation.
Yogesh Desai from Leicester told Asian Voice, “I read the article, and until now I heard from different people about violent clashes because of cricket, so many people came outside of Leicester to fight against Indian people. I also heard that they got money to do the fight.”
Dipti Mistry told us, “In Leicester, many faiths and communities are living in harmony and peace for many years. Sudden attacks on our Hindu community were a shock and certainly guided by outside forces. Mainly people were attacking our Hindu religious places and Hindu people were from outside Leicester.”
