Leicester’s Diwali scaled down claiming ‘safety fears’: shadows of 2022 Islamist violence against Hindus and Shockat Adam’s rise to power may have fuelled the decision
On 2nd July, Leicester City Council announced that there will be major changes to the annual Diwali celebrations, citing “serious concerns” around public safety and uncontrollable crowds. The meeting was held with city mayor Peter Soulsby, councillors, members of the Jain and Sikh communities, representatives of the Leicester Hindu Festival Council and Belgrave Business Association.
The council has decided that there will be no fireworks or stage entertainment this year. Furthermore, the council has decided not to use Cossington Street Recreation Ground, once home to the vibrant Diwali Village, food stalls, and fire garden. Leicester’s Diwali celebrations are known to be the biggest ones outside India.
However, the council claimed that it has become a “victim of its own success”. A Diwali safety advisory group declared the current set-up “no longer fit for purpose” and pushed for “urgent action” to manage the crowds, which the administration deemed “uncontrollable” as 50,000 people attended the festival last year.
There were discussions over alternative venues such as Abbey Park and the city centre. However, consultations with Belgrave businesses led to a decision to retain the celebrations on the Golden Mile, though in a stripped-down format. The council has announced that it will install 6,000 lights on Belgrave Road and the iconic Wheel of Light will return.
In a statement, city mayor for culture Vi Dempster said that the celebrations must continue but within safe limits. She added, “We are being strongly advised by our emergency service partners and crowd control experts that it cannot continue safely in its current format… that is a warning we must take extremely seriously.”
The announcement comes a year after the council scrapped the traditional light switch-on due to financial constraints, with costs having soared from £189,000 in 2018 to £250,000 in 2023. Graham Callister, head of festivals, admitted that reducing infrastructure and activity was necessary to ease congestion and ensure public safety.
2022 Islamist violence still casts a shadow on Leicester’s streets
The so-called safety concerns possibly stemmed from the targeted Islamist violence that erupted in 2022. It all began as unrest following a cricket match between India and Pakistan. It quickly escalated into a vicious anti-Hindu campaign. Though Pakistan’s victory should have quelled the tensions, attacks continued. It revealed a deeper, more ideological motivation behind the violence.
Radical Islamic mobs vandalised Hindu homes, businesses, and temples, forcing several Hindu families to flee Leicester. Instead of holding the aggressors accountable, the local police initially stoked tensions further by falsely suggesting that Hindu groups were calling for violence against Muslims, a claim later discredited but damaging enough to embolden Islamist agitators.
Scenes of saffron flags desecrated and burned, Hindu idols desecrated, and innocent worshippers pelted with bottles became symbols of the breakdown of law and order. Islamist thugs roamed freely while the police appeared to be in an “inaction” mode. Meanwhile, peaceful Hindu groups who chose to protest the attacks found themselves vilified and attacked, as their chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ were deliberately twisted into claims of provocation.
Several Islamists, including Majid Freeman and Mohammed Hijab, played a crucial role in inciting violence against Hindus in Leicester. There were fake claims, such as that a Muslim girl was abducted by Hindus, which was later debunked by the police. However, the narrative led to consequences and institutional apathy against the Hindu community.
Several media houses, including The Guardian, BBC and others, tried to shield Islamists and, when debunked by OpIndia, they played victim.
Shockat Adam’s win reflects a deeper shift in Leicester politics
As the atmosphere of polarisation and unrest continued to grow in Leicester, an independent candidate of Indian origin, Shockat Adam Patel, became Leicester South MP on a pro-Palestine campaign in July 2024. He defeated Labour’s Jon Ashworth by merely 979 votes.
After his victory, Shockat declared, “This is for the people of Gaza.” He made his political priorities clear – that he would side with the people of Palestine. His past record raised uncomfortable questions. His close association with ‘Muslim Engagement and Development’ (MEND), a group exposed by the Henry Jackson Society as an extremist outfit providing platforms to individuals who supported terrorists, espoused anti-Semitism, and encouraged violence.
His role during the 2022 violence has been equally troubling. Instead of condemning the Islamists outright, he attempted to justify their actions by claiming that it was a reaction to provocation. He suggested that Hindus had invited the violence. He even floated the conspiracy theory that Hindus linked to the RSS had migrated en masse to Leicester – a claim that even the BBC later admitted had no basis.
Shockat went on to give interviews alleging the rise of “Hindu supremacy” in Leicester, conveniently ignoring the sectarian nature of Pakistan’s creation in 1947, and painting the RSS as a force against Indian secularism. His rhetoric, laced with guilt-tripping and revisionism, sought to portray Hindus as aggressors rather than victims.
Adding fuel to the fire, Shockat collaborated with CJ Werleman, a notorious fake news peddler. He pushed anti-India propaganda in a MEND webinar in 2020. There, he described Indian citizens as “third-class” in their own country and urged donations to MEND to continue their so-called “fight against Islamophobia.”
Majid Freeman also backed Shockat. He celebrated his victory with a tweet mocking Ashworth and called Shockat “the best man”.
A city at crossroads
Leicester’s decision to strip down Diwali celebrations is not just about public safety. It is a consequence of the city’s deepening communal fault lines. While the lights on Belgrave Road may still flicker this year, the spirit of unity they once represented has been dimmed by violence, misinformation, and a political tide that increasingly favours those who rationalise extremism.
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