Charity Commission, UK's charity watchdog has opened a compliance case against the National Council of Hindu Temples (UK) after the group has been accused of inviting a controversial speaker to a seminar in the Parliament, hosted by Conservative MP Bob Blackman, as Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Hindus.
The umbrella group in Britain for Hindu temples and relevant organisations had allegedly invited Tapan Ghosh, the founder of Hindu Samhati based in West Bengal, India, to give a keynote address at an event titled ‘Tolerating the intolerant: The abuse of Hindu human rights in Europe and India’ on October 18th, to mark Diwali festival, during which he is accused of voicing extremist views.
Amber Rudd also ran into trouble after she had appeared in another Diwali event, with Priti Patel and Sajid Javid where Ghosh was present, but not speaking. A Home Office spokesperson later said: “The Home Secretary fundamentally disagrees with Mr Ghosh’s views on Islam. The Home Secretary accepted an invitation from the Hindu Forum of Britain to attend an event in Parliament last week to celebrate Diwali. She did not speak to Mr Ghosh and was not present when he spoke.”
The UK’s Charity Commission, in charge of regulating all charitable institutions registered in the UK, confirmed on thFriday 3 Nivember that it had opened a case which will involve questioning the trustees to decide if any further action was required.
In a statement the Commission said, “The Commission has opened a case into the National Council of Hindu Temples (UK) to assess concerns raised regarding a speaker at an event linked to the charity,”
Meanwhile, members of the Association of British Muslims, the Asian Mums Network, and the Women Against Radicalisation Network have co-signed an open letter to the Charity Commission demanding the National Council of Hindu Temples (UK) be stripped of its charity status.
Blackman said that Ghosh “made no abhorrent remarks at the meeting, and I am quite clear that I and the National Council of Hindu Temples do not agree with the views he previously stated.”
The NHCTUK has stressed that the core subject of the event was the “sustained targeting and abuse of Hindu and Sikh girls... their selection on the basis of their religion and their subsequent physical and emotional abuse for the purposes of forced conversion to Islam”.
