HUNDREDS of demonstrators gathered outside Downing Street yesterday in protest at the state visit by Hindu supremacist Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi.

Mr Modi arrived in London yesterday morning. His opponents accuse him of promoting the “fascistic politics of hatred” in India and of presiding over systematic human-rights abuses.

A spokesman for the South Asia Solidarity Group, which organised the protest, said they were also protesting Mr Modi’s economic policies “in which labour laws are being swept aside, trade unions crushed, campaigning NGOs banned, and foreign and Indian corporations given a free hand to plunder and destroy the environment and indulge in massive human-rights abuses.”

Amnesty International called on Prime Minister David Cameron to raise concerns with his Indian counterpart.

Amnesty’s head of policy Allan Hogarth said: “There’s a fevered crackdown on critics under way in India at the moment.

“NGOs and activists face multiple obstructions to carrying out their work, including being subjected to smear campaigns, having their funding cut off and being accused of being anti-national.

“Mr Cameron should speak out for the people Mr Modi is so intent on silencing and make it clear that how a country treats its NGOs is a litmus test for its international standing.”

Speaking yesterday Mr Cameron said the visit marked “a historic opportunity” for Britain and India to help each other prosper.

“It’s an opportunity for two countries, tied by history, people and values, to work together to overcome the biggest challenges of our age,” he said.

The visit comes at an unsettled time in India, where Mr Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently suffered an election defeat in the northern state of Bihar amid concerns over an alarming rise in religious intolerance and attacks on non-Hindus.