British Prime Minister Boris Johnson may raise the issue of farmers’ ongoing protest against the three new farm laws with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during his India’s visit for the 72nd Republic Day celebrations after being urged by his MPs to intervene.
For, a group of British members of parliament have decided to hand over a “cross-party letter” to ask their Prime Minister to convey concerns on the issue of the farmers’ protests to Modi during his scheduled visit in January next.
Labour MP from Slough Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi took to Twitter to announce that a letter, addressed to Johnson, was being drafted and will be signed by MPs from various parties.
“Given agreement and protocols for Boris Johnson’s January India trip are finalized, he’ll soon receive cross-party MPs letter, asking him to clarify his understanding of the India #FarmersProtest and to raise with the Indian PM hopes of a speedy resolution to this huge issue,” tweeted Dhesi, along with a two-minute video.
Dhesi’s statement came a couple of days after Punjab’s farmers had asked British-Punjabi leaders to appeal to the UK Prime Minister to cancel his trip to India as the chief guest for the next year’s Republic Day event “as a mark of protest” till the Centre repeals its “black laws”.
Besides Dhesi, there are four other Punjabi-origin MPs in the House of Commons — Virendra Sharma, Preet Kaur Gill, Gagan Mohindra and Seema Malhotra. Besides, Britain is also home to a sizeable Punjabi diaspora.
BKU (Lakhowal) state convener Harinder Singh Lakhowal had earlier stated that they had made an appeal to British Prime Minister through leaders from Punjab, who are now UKMPs, to not come to India as long as the demands of the farmers are not met.
However, Dhesi informed that all the arrangements and protocols have been finalized for Johnson’s India’s trip; and thus, a letter would be drafted to convey “our heartfelt anxieties and those of our constituents to the Indian Prime Minister as well as hoping for a speedy resolution to the deadlock”.
Dhesi had earlier also raised the issue of farmers’ protest in the UK parliament on December 9, but Johnson had “misheard” it and talked about India-Pakistan dispute saying that any dispute between India and Pakistan was for the two countries to settle bilaterally.
He had asked the Prime Minister (Johnson) if he would convey to the Indian Prime Minister “our heartfelt anxieties, our hopes for a speedy resolution to the current deadlock and does he agree that everyone has a fundamental right to peaceful protest”.
Pointing the same, Dhesi, in his video message, said: “Unfortunately, PM did not quite understand the question (in parliament). Therefore, I have drafted a letter to be sent to Johnson because we have learnt that preparations have been made for his trip to India in January.”
He said that the letter will ask the UK Prime Minister to convey “our heartfelt anxieties and those of our constituents to the Indian Prime Minister as well as hoping for a speedy resolution to the deadlock”.
Dhesi added that the Indian side should also be made aware of “the point that everybody must have a fundamental right to peaceful protest in their struggle to seek justice”. At the same time, he called on the UK citizens, who are interested in the issue, to contact their representatives to sign the letter.
“Those protesting peacefully out in India, let me reassure you that many people are concern about your safety and well-being and we are hoping that very soon you’ll be returning home after the resolution to current deadlock,” he said in a video message.
Earlier, Dhesi had also initiated a letter from 36 MPs to the UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab urging him to raise the matter during his visit to India, which he did during his talks with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.