For decades, the UK turned a blind eye to grooming gangs, despite mounting evidence and repeated warnings. The main reason? Politics, and a deep fear of being labelled racist. Reports, including those by Professor Alexis Jay and more recently Baroness Louise Casey, revealed that in towns like Rotherham, Rochdale, and Telford, young girls – mostly white and working class – were systematically abused by groups of men, predominantly of Pakistani origin. Yet for years, police forces, local councils, and even MPs avoided calling out the ethnic pattern, using the vague term ‘Asian’ to deflect scrutiny.
Yash Sinha, India’s former High Commissioner to the UK, calls this a ‘culture of denial.’ He tells StratNews Global, “It’s been happening for the last 50 years or for 40 years. And the sad part is that this is a shame, I think, happening in a country like the United Kingdom, an advanced democracy and an exponent, proponent of human rights all over the world.”
He points out that political correctness became a shield for inaction. Police feared that naming the ethnicity of offenders would cause racial tensions or harm community relations. Politicians worried about losing votes in areas with large South Asian populations. In some cases, perpetrators were protected while victims were dismissed, their testimonies buried under bureaucratic silence and shame.
The tragedy is not just in the crimes committed, but in how institutions failed these girls – many of whom reported the abuse but were not believed. This wasn’t just a policing failure; it was a moral collapse. Even as some offenders were prosecuted, thousands more cases were never pursued. For the victims, justice remains out of reach.
The recently announced national inquiry is a step forward. But as Sinha points out, it’s long overdue. Real justice will only come when those in power stop worrying about labels and start focusing on accountability, no matter how politically inconvenient.
