Kiwi-Indian Labour candidate from Hamilton West called “a curry candidate”
In the last issue, we published a conversation with Dr Gaurav Sharma, Labour Party candidate for Hamilton West, who noted how he had faced racism during the election campaign of 2017.
“Somebody told my campaign team then, ‘Couldn't you find somebody who looked like us.’ So I have faced racism while campaigning in 2017, and possibly will face the same this election too,” he had said then, while talking to his namesake Gaurav Sharma, Associate Editor of The Indian News.
Now a week later as campaigning started in his constituency, Dr Sharma fears have indeed come true. This is what happened on June 21 in his own words:
“Over the last three days our volunteers have been hard at work putting New Zealand Labour Party signs up across the town. This morning we found out that one lovely Hamiltonian was harassed and verbally abused by two sets of people for having signs supporting ‘a curry candidate’.
Racial discrimination is not new to me. Neither in politics nor in other spheres of life.
Last election I found some people refused to shake my hand, not because they did not believe in my political ideology or that of my party's policies but because my skin tone did not match theirs. As people in streets of Hamilton said to my good Pākehā friend and campaign volunteer ‘could you not find a candidate who looks like a New Zealander’, it shocked me.
While these incidences do not represent the majority of people in Kirikiriroa who have embraced me with open arms, and who I intend to represent, it is important that we acknowledge racism is still alive in Hamilton and in Aotearoa.
I want to thank our amazing supporter for hosting our sign (which we have since decided to remove) and for standing up for me against the racial slurs.
As I said in 2019 after the Christchurch mosque attacks, how we deal with racism as a community and as a country will not be decided by how many bouquets of flowers or cards we leave at the mosques and how many social media messages we write but by how we stand up for others, when next time another adopted kiwi is being racially targeted.
Speak up not for any one religion or one community, but for our collective identity as a peaceful and diverse country. A country that may not be perfect but is definitely our home, my home.”
Update by Dr Sharma on June 24, on the hoarding: “Initially, we had removed the sign from the property where abuse occured for safety reasons but we received a call from the kind person who hosted our sign, insisting that the sign go back up again after she found out I was her moko’s doctor. It takes courage to stand up against bullying of any kind and it warms my heart to see that people I am standing to represent are also standing up for me. Thanks to this wahine and her whānau for taking a strong stand on the issue and thank you all for the support you have shown me.”
-Gaurav Sharma