A Tory candidate has defended an election leaflet specifically addressed to Pakistani constituents regarding sectarian conflicts in India.
Marco Longhi, who was the MP for Dudley North from 2019 before the election was called, has addressed the letter to “voters of the British Pakistani/Kashmiri community in Dudley.”
The leaflet highlights Longhi’s campaigning “against the Indian Government atrocities towards the people of Kashmir”.
He goes on to ask: “Who will speak for Kashmir in Parliament?”
Jammu and Kashmir was the only Muslim-majority state in India before its special status was revoked by the government in 2019.
The leaflet has attracted criticism online, with the Labour candidate for Leicester East Rajesh Agrawal describing it as a “shameful attempt to divide communities”.
Agrawal said the leaflet included “dog whistle politics”.
But Longhi told GB News that he was simply “vocally supporting my Kashmiri community within my constituency”.
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He added: “I have a very mixed community, I represent a lot of people, many of them in the past have told me that they are very concerned about what’s happening in Kashmir.
“This is politics, isn’t it? Do you want someone who has consistently been supportive of Kashmiris where there have been human rights abuses or do you want someone called Sonia Kumar who no one has ever heard of?”
Longhi continued: “I don’t see why that’s a problem for me to highlight to members of my Kashmiri community.”
Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future think tank, pointed out that the letter “highlighted and underlined the name (ethnicity) of his Labour opponent ‘Sonia KUMAR’.”
Kumar is a popular Indian and Hindu surname.
Longhi told GB News that he highlighted Kumar’s surname because “no one knows who she is” in the constituency.
“All they’ve had is a leaflet from Starmer. I need people to know that I’m not standing against Starmer, I’m standing against Kumar.”
Katwala accused Longhi of making a “sectarian” community pitch.
Longhi said: “I completely reject what he is saying, he hasn’t done his homework. I find it rather insulting.”
He added: “All I want to do is represent a grouping within my wider communities and this particular grouping happens to be Kashmiri.
“He’s never raised these concerns when I’ve spoken up about it in parliament.”
Kumar, the Labour candidate, has yet to comment on the leaflet.
Longhi said that the letter was a “joint effort together with members of my team”.
Asked if the Conservative Party head office had contacted him over the leaflet, Longhi responded: “There have been some questions about it and they’ve been happy about the answers.”
__The Conservative Party did not respond to a request for comment.__
__Sonia Kumar was contacted for comment.__
