Tory candidate slammed for sending letter to Pak voters saying he will raise his voice for Kashmir

LONDON: Dudley North parliamentary candidate Marco Longhi is under fire for “shamefully trying to divide communities” after he wrote a campaign letter addressed to “voters of the British Pakistani/Kashmiri community” boasting that he has always “been at the forefront of speaking against the Indian govt atrocities towards the people of Kashmir”.
The letter asks whether his Labour British Indian Sikh opponent Sonia Kumar or he will speak up for Kashmir in Parliament.Her surname Kumar is in capitals and underlined.
Longhi, first elected in 2019, has been heavily slammed for the letter.
Friends of India Soc Intl UK strongly condemned it for challenging the territorial integrity of India, disturbing communal harmony and appeasing voters on religious grounds.

Krish Raval, chair of Labour Indians,called for Longhi’s immediate dismissal, saying he condemned Longhi’s “deeply divisive tactics” to “divide and rule” communities in Dudley. He added it was disheartening to see an Indian-origin PM “let anti-Indian racism run rife through his party”.
Rajesh Agrawal, Labour candidate for Leicester East, said it was “dog whistle politics” and offensive to the Muslim and Hindu communities.

Hindus for Labour said the leaflet revealed “the true colours” of the Conservative party. “ “We are glad that our Pakistani and Muslim colleagues are standing with us,” it said.
But Longhi defended his letter, telling GB News he was simply vocally supporting his Kashmiri community who were concerned about what was happening in Kashmir. “This is politics, isn’t it?” he said.
Kumar told the BBC it was “unacceptable” to imply that she would not stand up for all of her constituents because of her heritage.
A Conservatives spokesman said: “The UK and India have a strong bilateral relationship with deep historic roots. The UK prime minister is also fiercely proud of his families’ strong connection with India, and he hopes to ensure that that the UK reap the benefits of closer cooperation.”