London’s New Mayor Sadiq Khan Represents a True Melting-Pot City

Sadiq Khan’s victory has proven that there is no space for divisive campaigns in London, writes Sajeda Momin.

Sadiq Khan’s victory has proven that while divisive campaigns may work in India, they fail in London, even among Indians. (Photo: AP/ Altered by The Quint)

When Narendra Modi visited London last year he told the crowd at Wembley Stadium that it would not be long before there was a British-Indian at 10, Downing Street. However, before that can happen it must be galling for the Indian prime minister and his supporters that a British-Pakistani has already reached City Hall in London.

Sadiq Khan, the son of Pakistani immigrants, beat his nearest opponent Zac Goldsmith by a margin of four lakh votes to become the mayor of London, getting the largest personal mandate for any politician in UK history. Khan, a Labour MP from his place of birth, Tooting, in south London, has catapulted himself to become the most powerful ‘brown’ person in Britain and currently the most likely to reach Downing Street.

On the other hand, the Conservative candidate, Goldsmith, the son of a billionaire, is living down the infamy of running one of the dirtiest campaigns in UK’s recent political history – a campaign which looks as if it took lessons straight from the BJP.

London’s newly elected mayor Sadiq Khan sits with Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, in London, May 8, 2016. (Photo: AP)

Tories’ Leaflet Trick

Presuming that all British-Indians are Modi supporters, Goldsmith sent out separate leaflets signed by Prime Minister David Cameron to Indian homes showing him welcoming the Indian PM during his London trip. To make matters worse, the leaflets pointed out that Khan was a supporter of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who had wanted a ban on Modi visiting the UK.

They also stated that Khan had not attended the ‘UK Welcomes Modi’ event at Wembley Stadium as proof that Khan was anti-Indian, forgetting to mention that he met Modi at Downing Street, not that it is important or has any bearing on the election for the mayor. Showing that Goldsmith had a “strong engagement with the Indian community” because he celebrates “Diwali, Navratri and Janmashtami”, the leaflets presumed that only Hindus migrated to Britain from India, thus making an indirect reference to Khan’s Muslim faith.

Targeting Tamil voters with separate leaflets, the accusations referred to Khan not speaking up about the violence in Sri Lanka when he was a minister – but Khan was never in the Foreign Office. Homing in on Indians’ love for gold, it was claimed that the Tories would spend more money on the police to keep their homes safe from burglary whereas Khan would tax family jewellery.

Labour Takes City Hall

• Newly elected mayor of London, Sadiq Khan emerges as a victor despite the outrageous smear campaign led by the Tories.
  
• Sadiq’s opponent, Zac Goldsmith led a leaflet campaign ahead of polls in a bid to tarnish the Labour candidate’s image.
  
• Leaflets targeting Sadiq Khan proclaimed how he was a Modi baiter and that his elevation as the Mayor may harm the interests of British Indians.
  
• Eight years of Conservative control ended with Sadiq Khan winning in the Sikh-dominated boroughs of Ealing and Hilingdon.
  
• Poll strategy of stereotyping Asians backfires proving that there are no takers for such divisive campaigns in cosmopolitan London.
  

Divisive Politics

Leaving aside the fact that the mayor has no powers to tax anyone’s jewellery, the leaflets were a cynical attempt to pit one community against another.

The leaflets backfired. Rather than caring about the Cameron-Modi camaraderie, British-Indian voters felt upset at the crude stereotypes the leaflets projected about them.

The Tories still believe that all British-Indians are Hindus who are only worried about their family gold and small businesses.

A Sikh community leader.

It made them feel like outsiders, still not accepted as mainstream British, despite being second and third generation immigrants.

London’s newly-elected mayor Sadiq Khan is applauded by supporters as he takes part in a campaign event in the Canary Wharf business district in London, May 4, 2016. (Photo: AP)

Hindus Voted For Khan

The borough of Harrow, which has the largest Hindu population in London, voted for Khan, as did Brent which is home to Wembley Stadium and Modi’s brethren from Gujarat. Both these boroughs in north-west London are traditional Labour supporters as most ethnic minorities prefer this party over the Conservatives because of their more inclusive policies and tough stand on racism.

The surprising result was from the adjoining boroughs of Ealing and Hillingdon, which, because of their large pockets of affluent voters, did swing to the Tories in the last election, but this time was picked up by Khan. Ealing and Hillingdon are home to the largest concentration of Sikhs in London as well as affluent British-Indians who were also repulsed by Goldsmith’s smear campaign against Khan.

A new visitor to London may feel that he has actually landed in Delhi seeing the number of brown faces but the reality is that Indians make up only 6 per cent of the London’s over 8 million population. The other brown faces are from Pakistan and Bangladesh, who, between them, make up 4 per cent of the population.

Unity in Diversity

Prior to 9/11, all immigrants from the sub-continent were happy to be called British-Asians. The differences only cropped up when some Hindus felt they should put a distance between themselves and ‘Muslim terrorists’, but when it came to reprisals from right-wing British parties like the BNP (British National Party) and the National Front, they could not tell the difference between who was a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh – to them you were all ‘Pakis’.

Khan’s victory has proven that while divisive campaigns may work in India, they fail in London, even among Indians. It is a victory to be celebrated by all the ethnic minorities of this great city which is the real melting-pot of the world – where anyone who comes here and makes it his home can call himself a Londoner and aspire to become its mayor.

(The writer, a former Resident Editor of The Asian Age, divides her time between the UK and India)

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