India summons UK envoy over ‘gross interference’ in the country's internal affairs
The Indian government has summoned Alexander Ellis, the UK’s High Commissioner to New Delhi, over the “unwarranted and tendentious” debate about Indian agricultural reforms in the British parliament.
Conveying India’s strong opposition to the UK parliamentary debate on Monday (March 08), India’s Foreign Secretary, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, told Ellis, that such a discussion in the House of Commons “represented a gross interference in the politics of another democratic country”.
Shringla advised that “British MPs should refrain from practicing vote bank politics by misrepresenting events”, especially when it comes to a democratic state like India.
Meanwhile, the High Commission of India in London said it “deeply regrets” that the British parliament raises such “false assertions without any substantiation or facts, casting aspersions on the largest functioning democracy in the world and its institutions”.
The issue centers on the ratification late last year of three new agricultural laws by India, which has in turn set off months-long protests by farmers.
Despite the UK government's avowed neutrality on the issue, and reassurances that Indian agricultural reforms constitute a "domestic matter", the House of Commons has been keen to subject the Indian government's actions to forensic scrutiny.
On Monday’s session, both Labor and Conservative MPs "condemned" the Indian government for its alleged mistreatment of protesting farmers. In addition, British MPs protested against the alleged crackdown on the press, internet shutdowns and the alleged suppression of activists.
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