London mayoral polls - Cameron woos Singh and Kaur!

JALANDHAR: It is common to seek votes in the name of Panth and Punjab during elections in the state. However, the trend seems to be catching up across the oceans now. In London mayoral elections, residents with Singh or Kaur surnames have received letters ostensibly sent by British Prime Minster David Cameron praising Sikh and Punjabi communities and also referring to his visit to Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Backing his party's candidate Zac Goldsmith, who is also MP from Richmond Park and North Kingston constituency, Cameron's letter reads, "The Sikh and Punjabi communities make London great". It goes on to detail, "The Sikh and Punjabi communities make an extraordinary contribution to London and to Britain, whether in business and enterprise, raising families or building stronger, more united communities. In government I have been determined to listen and act on your concerns".

Cameron's letter also highlights that he was the first "serving British Prime Minster to visit Golden Tem ple in Amritsar". "It was deeply moving to see this holy site and it renewed my respect for this great religion," the letter adds.

Taking lines from pamphlets of any of the regional parties of regional parties of Punjab, the letter goes on to highlight Conservative candidate's concern for the turbaned community, "as an MP, Zac has consistently championed the Sikh community in his constituency and I know he will do the same as Mayor of London."

It then mentions local factors for citizens of London to vote for Zac.

A poster circulated by Zac, in which he compares himself with Labour candidate Sadiq Khan, the Tori candidate has mentioned that he campaigned for the Golden Temple to remain in the hands of the Sikh community - an apparent reference when around a decade and half back there was a move to get UNESCO heritage status for Darbar Sahib, which many perceived a step that would result in Sikhs losing the control of their most important shrine.

"Campaigned for documents de tailing the storming of the Golden Temple to be made public," the poster reads, while pointing out the release of documents de-classified by British government about latter's role in Operation Blue Star -the army action on Darbar Sahib. Then he also mentions "as mayor (he) will focus police on protecting your families homes from burglary", which implies that Indians love to own jewellery and that required to be protected while his rival Sadiq Khan's party "supports a wealth tax on family jewellery".

A similar letter has also gone to voters with typical Gujarati surnames. However, the move has also attracted criticism from voters and activists - especially from those who support the Labour Party - alleging that the letter and leaflets amounted to racial profiling.

It may be mentioned here that British Sikh Report 2015, based on a sample survey among Sikhs and released in March 2014, had found that 16% respondents in the survey had expressed intention to vote for the Conservatives and even this figure was held "surprising" given the perception that migrant communities largely supported Labour.

During par liament election last year, when Conservative Friends of India, a group of British Indian supporters of Conservative party , produced and released the song "Neela Hai Aasman Gagan Vishal, Yahi Rang Hai Britain Ki Shaan" - to woo the Indian community, Cameron's visit to Golden Temple figured very prominently. While he was also shown reaching out to Hindu sants his participation in cooking Langar in a Britain gurudwara, participating in a Nagar Kirtan (religious procession of Sikhs) surrounded by colourful turbans, his visit to another British gurudwara and paying obeisance before Guru Granth Sahib also figured in the video.

BIG ON ISSUES

A poster circulated by Zac Goldsmith, he has mentioned that he campaigned for the Golden Temple to remain in the hands of the Sikh community - an apparent reference when around a decade and half back there was a move to get UNESCO heritage status for Darbar Sahib.