On 28th September 2022, Hindus in the United Kingdom gathered in front of the Guardian News office in London to protest against their biased reporting of the Leicester violence that painted the Hindu community in a bad light despite it being the victim of the incident in which a Hindu temple was vandalized. The biased reporting in The Guardian causing the outrage of the Hindu community is credited to journalists Jessica Murray, Aina J Khan, and Rajeev Syal. It is notable that, Aina J Khan had previously invoked RSS in the Leicester violence in which Islamists attacked Hindus.
After the protest, the protestors handed over a memorandum addressed to Katharine Viner, the editor of the Guardian, to the Chief of Security of the media house. One of the protestors said that they are very concerned about the very anti-Hindu bias and anti-India bias that Guardian has, and the media house is publishing articles daily condemning Hindus for various acts. He said that the Guardian articles are creating hate for Hindus in the country, and therefore the Hindu community is asking the Guardian to tone down their anti-India rhetoric. The person added that the anti-Hindu hate triggered by the newspaper can lead to conflicts and Hindus may be hurt in the process.
The Hindu community leader said that most of the articles are written by people in India with half-truths to further their anti-Hindu agenda, deliberately written to create an impression that Hindus are demonic people. “There is no standard of professional journalism in Guardian coming from Delhi,” he added. He called the protest today a warning to the Guardian, that they will keep coming there again and again if they don’t stop publishing anti-Hindu and anti-India content.
Before handing over the memorandum to the chief of security, he further asked Guardian to reconsider their agenda and said that they expect a response from the media house as soon as possible.
Several photos and videos of the protest in front of the Guardian office were posted on Twitter. The protesters were seen holding placards saying ‘Hindu Lives Matter’, ‘ Stop putting lives at risk’, ‘Guardian stop false narrative’, ‘Stop spreading fake news’, ‘Stop demonising Hindus’, ‘Hindu is peace’ etc.
Poonam Joshi is an Indian women’s rights activist in the UK. She tweeted, “We are not nazis, we are not fascists. Angry Hindus protesting outside the office of Guardian newspaper protesting against an article published branding them as extremists.”
Another protester said, “It’s turning here a protest against biased journalism of UK newspapers and media houses like Guardian and BBC. They call us the Hindu extremists while we are the most peace-loving people on earth. Here we have gathered to show our displeasure and condemnation of this biased journalism against Hindus. Hindus are victims of terrorism. Hindus are victims of attacks.”
It is notable that, when the violence broke out in Leicester, a journalist associated with UK-based leftist media outlet The Guardian, Aina Khan, tweeted about her ‘tense day’ while covering the Leicester violence. She claimed to have interviewed one Hindu man who was wearing a motorbike helmet and holding an Indian flag. Khan then claimed that the man in the helmet claimed he was an RSS supporter. She then added one disclaimer that the RSS was inspired by Italian dictator Mussolini.
Even in the second article that she wrote along with two co-writers, Hindus are painted in bad colours. The title of the article reads, ‘It feels like people want to fight’: how communal unrest flared in Leicester. In the body of the article, a Muslim councilor Ruma Ali is quoted to be saying “It’s been going on for months. It is calm for now but there will be reprisals. It feels like people want to fight.” Here, she is referring to Hindus in the locality. By giving such titles to the articles, Guardian and Aina J Khan tried to propagate that it is Hindus who actually want to fight, whereas Hindus are the victims of the Leicester violence. Hindus in London have therefore protested in front of the Guardian News office against such biased journalism against Hindus.