A totally unnecessary general election has left Tories in tatters and seen a massive upsurge in Labour’s popularity. Whilst Theresa May has been described by a leading light of her own party as ‘woman walking’, Jeremy Corbyn has emerged as the one with vision and hope for the nation.
The Labour’s popularity, confounding the pundits, is based on its manifesto and its positive campaign lead by Jeremy Corbyn who’s proved to be a leader of utmost integrity. Labour’s fully costed manifesto has touched the hearts and souls of the youth and working class people who’ve been disfranchised for far too long. Having laid this foundation Labour now needs to build on it to deliver equality for all our communities. Austerity has hurt the poorer people the hardest and it’s time now to invest in public services.
I thank people of Harrow East for what, against all odds, is a moral victory for me. The result is entirely due to the trust and confidence people of Harrow East have shown in me. I express my sincere gratitude and promise I won’t let people down.
I’m proud of positive and clean campaign we ran in Harrow East. It was a campaign fuelled by and fought with nothing other than love, friendship, family and the kindness and determination of some of our local activists, volunteers and party members who had the strength and imagination to believe that the supposed 'impossible' was actually completely possible. As incredibly disappointing and infuriating as it is to know just how close we came, this great effort shows there’s all to play for!
It is most regrettable that in the last few years Tories locally have seen it fit to run negative campaign risking division than forging unity. I’m entirely with a resident who wrote to me during the election saying “I'm really upset when letters by the Tory Party, recently one signed by Dolar Popat are being circulated. This sort of politics is divisive and playing on sectarian issues. The Labour Party needs to say something. Politics is secular. I'm an East African Asian of Jain background. I do not want to be lumped with any religion.”
The general election also saw the same old issues like Kashmiri Pundits and caste legislation dragged out for the Tory propaganda to find cheap favours amongst Indian / Hindu voters. One cannot deny that these are important issues but when it comes to the plight of deprived Indians in the UK and culturally specific needs, particularly those of the first generation Indians, there is deafening silence in the Tory propaganda. In his Asian Voice column of last week Cllr Sachin Shah, Leader of Harrow Council, is spot on in highlighting the wide range of issues affecting our Indian communities and his commitment to work to supporting and delivering needs of Indians in Harrow. This is what you get from Labour and this is what you’d get from me - not the dangerous tactics peddled by the ‘nasty party’.
