Bhagwat’s US trip had been planned on a grand scale, centred around his appearance at an ‘interfaith’ gathering at Madison Square Garden, but the fascist character of the RSS behind the blatant image-laundering exercise was thoroughly exposed by protests, political opposition, and revelations of the extent of deceit the organisers had engaged in to secure the participation of faith leaders. Even as this was happening, coalitions of diaspora groups in Canada (his next stop) and Britain were mobilising ahead of his arrival.
In Britain, 21 diaspora organisations wrote to the UK government’s Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the UK Foreign Office highlighting the RSS as an organisation modelled on European fascism which is currently at the heart of ‘the largest far-right network in the world’, its long and ongoing record of violence and persecution of Muslims, Christians, oppressed caste people and other minorities in India, and also the inspiration it provides to fascist violence elsewhere such as neo-Nazi Anders Brevik’s 2011 massacre in Norway, the fomenting of Islamophobic violence in Leicester in 2022 by its diaspora avatar – the HSS, and the engagement of RSS-affiliated diaspora organisations in active transnational repression of critics and dissenters globally. Noting that “the threats posed in Britain by the RSS are real, active and ongoing. Mr. Bhagwat’s visit will embolden RSS affiliates in the UK to promulgate hate speech, further polarise the diaspora, and create an environment of fear and intimidation for vulnerable communities across the country”, the letter called for boycott, condemnation and sanctions against Bhagwat and other RSS leaders. South Asia Solidarity Group commented that “The RSS has been responsible for Hindu supremacist violence from the assassination of Gandhi to the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 and the systematic ethnic cleansing of Muslims and other minorities today under Modi. Mohan Bhagwat must not be allowed to launder the RSS image internationally and whip up tensions among South Asians in Britain”.
Your Party leader and veteran leftist MP Jeremy Corbyn released a statement condemning Bhagwat’s London events, stating that “Britain should not be hosting the leader of a hate group with a grievous history of far-right violence. This is a deeply authoritarian, exclusionary and discriminatory organisation which has suppressed religious freedom and inspired horrific attacks on minorities. There should be no space for this kind of hatred in our city – and it is truly appalling that this is going ahead”, while Labour MP Nadia Whittome tabled a Parliamentary question ahead of the visit.
Meanwhile, diaspora groups also wrote to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, with several demands, including an assurance that there would be no Mayoral or Greater London Assembly (GLA) engagement with the visit and no GLA land or premises made available for it.
With opposition clearly growing in Britain too, Bhagwat’s appointments in the UK were kept carefully under wraps, and limited to interactions with close and trusted allies, prompting anti-fascist campaigners to point out that Bhagwat had gone from ‘lying’ in New York to ‘hiding’ in London. Not even the Indian press were told his itinerary and he did not address a press conference. The far-right pro-Israel Conservative MP Bob Blackman, who receives funding from the Sangh and is also a recipient of the Padma Shri, was among a select group of pro-Hindutva leaders and businesspeople who met Bhagwat soon after he arrived. After this, there was his main event on Sunday, 6th September, where he was supposed to meet ‘the community’, in other words, members of the UK Hindutva network of organisations. The venue was kept secret and even journalists were banned from attending, and not informed of the venue in advance, eventually being told they could 'watch online from a separate room.'
With Mohan Bhagwat effectively hiding in Potters Bar on the outskirts of London, simultaneously a large demonstration against RSS fascism took place in Parliament Square in the centre of the city. South Asia Solidarity Group along with the UK Indian Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, Indian Workers’ Association, CasteWatch UK and several other Indian and Kashmiri diaspora groups joined hands for the protest and those participating raised powerful slogans of ‘Mohan Bhagwat you can’t hide: RSS means genocide’ and ‘Who are the fascists? BJP! RSS!’, and held placards proclaiming ‘Diaspora United Against Fascism in India’. A speaker from South Asia Solidarity Group spelled out the reality of Bhagwat’s claim to be espousing ‘Universal Oneness’: ‘it’s the oneness of global fascism; it’s the oneness of global Islamophobia; it’s the oneness of global Zionism!’. The protest culminated in a human chain of people holding letters spelling United Against RSS.
The following evening, Bhagwat's last in the UK, he attended a secret meeting for billionaire RSS donors in the Bentley Hotel, a lavish ‘boutique’ hotel in West London owned by the Sangar family, patrons of the Sangh affiliated Hindu Forum, and previously the location of a secret rendezvous between Sushma Swaraj and the fugitive Lalit Modi. But anti-fascist protestors tracked him down here and disrupted the meeting, with continuous slogans, including ‘Mohan Bhagwat shame on you! Your hands are bloody too!’, ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ and ‘Fascists are not welcome here!’. In their familiar colonial style, the RSS then called the British police to protect them from diaspora Indians, prompting chants of ‘Jab Mohan Bhagwat darta hai, police ko aage karta hai’.
