We are members and friends of the UK labour movement who are deeply concerned by the worsening political situation and human rights violations in India, engendered and deepened by its far-right nationalist, ultra neoliberal government.

We have signed this statement to raise awareness of this situation; to express our solidarity with India’s workers’ and social movements, and all fighting the politics of sectarian hatred that undermine working people’s livelihoods and interests; and to call on the UK labour movement to step up its support.

Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, and the wider Hindu nationalist movement it is part of, are promoting ethnoreligious division and hatred. At the same time, they are gutting democratic institutions, aggressively suppressing not only resistance but dissent – increasingly often through incarceration without trial – and pushing through attacks on workers’ rights and social provision in the interests of the rich. India’s ranking in the various global democracy indexes falls continuously, while in 2021 it’s top 1% owned 40.5% of its wealth.

Some states in India have been particularly gripped by violence stemming from the far-right Hindu nationalist movement. In India’s eastern Manipur state, the minority Kuki-Zo community are being brutally persecuted. Hundreds of people have been killed and there has been widespread sexual violence, which has shocked millions of people across India. In Haryana state, as well as in other parts of the country, vicious anti-Muslim pogroms have been launched, with businesses ransacked, mosques destroyed and people murdered. It is working people, oppressed castes and religious minorities whose homes and livelihoods are being destroyed and who are paying the price of the divisions being fostered.

Despite this human rights crisis, our Conservative government maintains its friendship with the BJP and continues to push for a neoliberal anti-worker UK-India Free Trade Agreement. We call on the UK government to immediately halt these negotiations and raise human rights violations in India at the G20 summit in Delhi.[*]

The BJP regime is not invincible. The inspiring farmers’ and farm labourers’ movement in 2020-21 won significant victories and concessions from the Indian government. But the many struggles for democratic and social rights still being waged in India, in extremely difficult circumstances, need far greater international attention and solidarity.

In light of the rapidly deteriorating situation, we call on the UK left and labour movement to 1) urgently build links with India’s labour and social movements, and 2) organise active political and practical solidarity.

[* This statement was launched before the September 2023 G20 summit, but remains open for signatures after]

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Signatories so far (updated 30 October 2023):

Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East
Sarah Woolley, Bakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union (BFAWU) General Secretary 
Henry Lopez, Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) General Secretary
India Labour Solidarity
Unau Welfare International
John Moloney, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) Assistant General Secretary (pc)
Elaine Jones, NHS worker, Unison National Executive Committee
Sofia Karim, Turbine Bagh, London
Martin Timson, Unison Merseytravel/LCRCA-Steward, Liverpool
Julie Ward, Unite member, NW Durham CLP, former Labour Member of the European Parliament
Santosh Dass, Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance
Lee Hunter, Fire Brigades Union Merseyside Brigade Chair
Minesh Parekh, Labour and Co-operative Councillor, Sheffield
Ria Patel, Councillor (Green Party), Croydon
Vino Sangarapillai, Camden Unison
Jo Krishnakumar, Trans/form South Asia, London
Annapurna Menon, University of Sheffield UCU
Councillor Sahdaish Pall, Sikh Women’s Aid CEO, Sandwell
Samuel Eastoe, Co-Chair, Cambridge University Labour Club
Harry Singh-Judd, Bristol
Praveen Kolluguri, India Labour Solidarity
Lotika Singha, India Labour Solidarity
Sacha Ismail, India Labour Solidarity
Dany Khuplianlal, Unau Welfare UK Secretary
Lun Fitton
Rajeev Singha, Unite the Union Community, Stoke on Trent
Chris Ford, GMB, Ukraine Solidarity Campaign
Steven Chapman, National Union of Students UK National Scrutiny Committee member
Eric Fileman, NUS
Lakshman Balasubramanyam, director, Crowthorne
Rich Turner, Winchester
Natalie Kopytko, Leeds University UCU member
Faheem Ashraf, student, London
Daniel Nichols, Romford Constituency Labour Party
Roshan Lal, Sheffield
Kathleen Aikman
John Dayal, writer, Delhi
Rebekah Jayne Susan Chapman, Nottingham
Musammil Gafoor, nurse, Wakefield
Anthony Dunsdon, Quorn, Leicestershire
Shabuddin Khan, Leicester, Doctor
Abhishek Bhosale, London/Pune, Researcher
Reuben Brown, University of Cambridge
Kezia Coleman, Kingston and Surbiton Labour Party
Seagh Kehoe, Lecturer, University of Westminster
Asif, Ahmedabad
Mohammed Kolia, Leicester, UKIMC
Afaq Siddiqui, Leeds, NGS
Mike Rowley, City Councillor, Oxford
James Kay, Unite member
Nenem, Bengaluru 
Kas Witana, Sheffield, Constituency Labour Party political education officer, Unison member (health)
Gaurav Bansal, London
Sophie Carapetian, BDZ/CSM, London
Tilna Tilakkumar, NHS Doctor
Saumya Kalia, journalist, The Hindu, Mumbai
Mair Dyer, Chepstow
Anastasia Nicholas, Rugby
Emily Giddings, Nottingham
Kiran, Reading
Tari, Indian Workers Association, Birmingham
Sajid Hussain, London, DJ Shai Guy
Dhairyaa Pandya, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Tyrone Falls, Unite, UCU, Acorn, Bristol
Aindri Chakraborty, Member DCW, Edinburgh
Fahad Ahmed Mohammed, Hyderabad  
Dr. Nidhi, ISS, Fellow, Austin, Texas
D Conversi, Professor, EHU/UPV, Rome
Karan Singha, Amsterdam
James Jackson, Unite, London
Matthew Hull, Green Party Trade Union Liaison Officer
Margaret Remana, UCU Goldsmiths
Saranya Paidimukkala, MA Student, City UoL
Ram Paul, Unison, Sheffield
Sharon Evans, doctor, BMA member
Kailean Khongsai, London, Unau Welfare UK Chair
Nancy Hocke, Lützel-Wiebelsbach
Kim, London
Nengneithem Kipgen, New Delhi
Daniel Haokip, London
Paulette Romain, PCS union, London
Raphael Ngailut, Kangpokpi, Manipur / Mumbai, Maharashtra
Kim Singson, Hyderabad
Chonminlien Gangte, Brest
Malcolm Hunter, Leicester South Labour Party and Unison
Alison Winstone, Leicester
S Khailun Haokip, Caistor, Lincolnshire, Unau Welfare
Larry Zadeng, Rochester, Public Sector worker
Anna Coda, Herefordshire, CLP member secretary
Tyler Grant Hooley, Unite member, Leicester
Cristina Spoiala, Glasgow
Fatimah Anwar, Leicester
Rachel Cohen, London
Helen Ette, Newcastle
Henry James
Julie Chaplain, Labour councillor, CLP Secretary, Nottingham
Louise Hazan, Oxford
Natasha Bednall, Unison Leicester City Branch Young Members Officer
Rianka Gill, London
Hindpal Jandu, Liverpool
Liam Shrivastava, Labour councillor, London Borough of Lewisham
Trisha Mendiratta, London
David Chaytor, West Yorkshire
Paul Fleming
Margaret Fleming, Unite Community, Leicester
Dave Kirk, Unison, West Yorkshire
Leo Verity, London
John Bryn Jones, Unite the Union - Chair RM Branch WA/B6001
Zenab Khan, West Yorkshire
Sarah Jones, Milton Keynes CLP
Chandra Ghosh, Liverpool
Julie Hope, Unite Community; Stand Up To Racism; Stop the War; Counterfire; OCISA, Southampton
Kamaljit Kaur, Assistant teacher, Slough
Paul Renny, Haringey Unison Schools Convenor
Shezan Renny, NEU, London
Sumaiyah, Doctor
Angela Paton, XR, Glasgow
Lucy Costain, FBU, Liverpool
Stuart, FBU H&S REP, Merseyside
George Gray, PCS, Woking
Chris Bright, Camberwell and Peckham CLP
Alena Ivanova, Another Europe is Possible, Glasgow
Nikhil Dharmaraj, Cambridge, UK
Rita Chadha, London
Shanti Devi, Support worker, West Midlands
Andy Dark, Former Asst General Secretary FBU (UK) (now retired)
Fuad Dirgi, UCL security worker, IWGB
Martin Wogido, UCL security worker, IWGB
Mark Newman, UCL staff
Kurt Jameson, UCL staff
Mercedes Rodriguez
Malvika, UCL student
Matteo Tanovello, UCL student
Aisha Rana-Deshmukh, UCL student
Alex Eaglestone, UCL
Katrina Harris, UCL
Maggi Gibb, University of Westminster
Antje Braver-Maxeia, UCL
Angela Devi, Support Worker, Sikh Women's Aid
Ananya Jain, President, The Cambridge Majlis

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