A massive crowd of protestors staged a demonstration outside Downing Street here against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s First visit to the UK.
Narendra Modi was greeted by noisy protests outside Downing Street as he arrived for talks with David Cameron.
Several hundred demonstrators representing Gujarati, Sikh, Tamil, Kashmiri, Nepali and women’s groups chanted ”Modi go home” and “David Cameron shame shame” as the Indian prime minister was welcomed at about lunchtime on Thursday.
Amnesty International and other rights groups have accused his government of fostering a climate that has encouraged growing religious violence, and permitting wider human rights abuses.
Many of the several hundred protesters in Whitehall cited the 2002 riots as the reason they were demonstrating, but others raised issues of human rights, protection for women in India and accusations of injustice against Tamils, Dalits and other religious and ethnic minorities.
A delegation of Sikh protesters waved black flags and accused Modi of genocide in a provocative banner that also bore an image of Hitler. Dabinderjit Singh, principal adviser of the Sikh Federation (UK), said: “People genuinely fear the direction Narendra Modi is taking the country in terms of the impact on religious and ethnic minorities. What happens to the hundreds of millions of Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and he Dalit community in India? Where will we go?”
The London mayoral candidate George Galloway joined a crowd of protesters stationed outside Downing Street, waving Indian flags and banners reading
“Modi not welcome”, “stop religious persecution” and “shame on you Cameron”.
Protester Bigyan Brasai criticised the UK for rolling out the red carpet for Modi and said Cameron needed to put pressure on him to stop blockading roads into Nepal.
A smaller group of fewer than 50 pro-Modi demonstrators, kept at a distance by police, waved Indian flags and chanted “welcome Modi”. One of those supporting the prime minister, Shri Jayu Shah, of the Friends of India Society, said:
“People should respect that India is a democratic nation and he was elected by the people of India. That gives him every right to be here.” Modi, he added, “is the one who is going to take India out of poverty”.
The Indian prime minister can expect a warmer welcome on Friday, when 60,000 members of the Indian diaspora will pack into Wembley stadium for a rock star reception and fireworks display at which he will be greeted onstage by Cameron.