A meeting in Parliament attended by Tapan Ghosh, leader of the Hindu Samhati, last year, has formed the centre of a growing political row in Britain over alleged Islamophobia in the Conservative Party.
The meeting that took place in a committee room of Parliament in October 2017 was used by the Muslim Council of Britain in a letter to the Conservative Party to highlight a “wider problem” in the party. It was organised by the National Council of Hindu Temples (U.K.) and the British Board of Hindu Scholars and held in a room booked through Bob Blackman MP, the Conservative chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Hindus.
Endorsing Islamophobia
The Muslim Council of Britain accused Mr. Blackman of showing a “consistent record” of endorsing Islamophobia. It highlighted the hosting of Mr. Ghosh as well as Mr. Blackman’s re-tweeting of an anti-Muslim post by the far-right anti-Islamic activist Tommy Robinson. Mr. Blackman “shared an anti-Muslim post on Facebook this week and was found to have been a member of a number of Islamophobic Facebook groups”, the letter to Brandon Lewis, the Chairman of the Conservative Party, states.
“I utterly refute this allegation,” said Mr. Blackman in a statement. “I was added to Facebook groups without my knowledge or permission and immediately removed myself from them when I became aware I had been added. I did not host Tapan Ghosh in Parliament. He was invited by an organisation without my knowledge... I will continue working with all communities in my constituency and I condemn Islamophobia.” An invitation to Mr. Ghosh’s event, titled ‘Tolerating the Intolerant, described Mr. Blackman as its host.
“Tapan Ghosh was invited by the National Council of Hindu Temples to attend that meeting and present evidence of physical attacks, rapes, forced marriages and forced conversions that have taken place in West Bengal and other places,” Mr. Blackman told the House of Commons last year. “I have made clear, and the National Council of Hindu Temples has made clear, that it was only in that capacity — as presenting that evidence — that that individual was invited to this House. He 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.”
