Anti India forces in UK use farmers’ protest to target New Delhi

Protests suit their anti-India narrative; they want to tarnish India’s ‘Chai and Yoga’ soft power and ‘Biggest Democracy’ image’.

London: As a petition to the UK Parliament by Liberal Democrat activist Gurcharn Singh, relating to Indian agriculture reforms, reached the required number of signatures for a parliamentary debate, the Foreign Office was obliged to respond. On 15 February, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office published a statement acknowledging some of the Indian diaspora’s concern, the FCDO’s awareness of the situation, supporting an independent media, but respecting that reform was a matter only for India and that “governments have the power to enforce law and order if a protest crosses the line into illegality”. Equivalent comments have emanated from the Biden administration and from Canada.
On the same date, the High Commission India in London took on hard-left Labour MP Claudia Webbe in an open letter, offering to clarify any constituency misapprehensions. Webbe has been a solidarity activist on behalf of the protesters. On 23 February, Webbe openly responded to the HCI not accepting their offer of amenable conciliation, instead Webbe had taken the matter to PM Boris Johnson with a request to cease sales of certain “weapons” and pesticides.
Also on 23 February, Lord Singh of Wimbledon published a similar letter expressing concern that farmers protesting in Delhi had experienced “savage police and RSS paramilitary beatings”, and requested a debate in the House of Commons. Lord Indarjit Singh is a crossbench peer and editor of the Sikh Messenger.
Additionally, on 23 February, a Collective Press Statement was published by Indian Diaspora Faith Organisations, condemning attempts to communalise the famers protests. Signatories were the Hindu Council UK, the Federation of Indian Muslim Organisations, the Supreme Sikh Council UK and the National Council of Hindu Temples UK.
Gurcharn Singh is a former Conservative Councillor who defected to the Liberal Democrats when he was faced with suspension after a motion of no-confidence from the Conservative group.
Claudia Webbe is the Labour MP for Leicester East and a Councillor in the Borough of Islington (Jeremy Corbyn HQ). When Keith Vaz unceremoniously retired in 2019, Webbe was personally selected by Corbyn and parachuted in to the seat. There is a marked difference between Vaz’s socialism and Webbe’s socialism.
Preet Kaur Gill, MP and Chair of the APPG of British Sikhs, is also expounding about the protesters’ human rights and the conditions relating to the detention of Jagtar Singh Johal. While Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, responding to coverage of the protests being hijacked by foreign-based separatist groups, claimed: “Lies and moral depravity of some in Indian media seem limitless.”
As seen in India with hard-Left unions and the Left, the farmers› protest has thrown a bone to those against free market reforms and private sector investment. The protests suit their anti-India narrative, they want to tarnish India’s “Chai and Yoga” soft power and “Biggest Democracy” image with “PM Modi is a fascist” memes. Consequently, a large number of incredible, extreme conspiracy theories are doing the rounds, fuelling the toxic narrative of hate and division.