ANI LONDON

The Hindu Council UK (HCUK) has demanded a national public inquiry into sexual-grooming gangs across the United Kingdom, condemning the "heinous crimes" committed against children and young girls.

The organisation has called on the UK government to fulfil its responsibility of safeguarding vulnerable individuals and ensuring justice for the victims of these atrocities.

The HCUK also expressed dissatisfaction with the use of the term "Asian" to describe these grooming gangs, highlighting the harm this generalisation causes to other communities. "Hindu and Sikh girls were also their victims," the HCUK said, welcoming a recent decision by the BBC to refrain from using the term in news reports. 

However, the group criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer for continuing to use the term during a press conference, describing it as "whitewashing" the issue.

The broader controversy has reignited debate over Starmer's tenure as the UK's Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from 2008 to 2013. Critics, including tech billionaire Elon Musk, have accused Starmer of failing to address the issue during his time as DPP. Musk recently stated, "The real reason is that it would show how Starmer repeatedly ignored the pleas of vast numbers of little girls and their parents, in order to secure political support.

Starmer is utterly despicable." Starmer, however, has staunchly defended his record, claiming to have changed the system to ensure victims' voices were heard and citing record prosecutions of child sexual abuse cases during his tenure.

The Rotherham scandal, which took place between 1997 and 2013, remains one of the most notorious cases of child exploitation in the UK. Seven men were recently convicted in September 2024 for crimes committed against two girls in the 2000s. The convictions were part of Operation Stovewood, a major investigation led by the National Crime Agency into child sexual exploitation in South Yorkshire.