London: The Opposition parties in the UK have questioned in Parliament Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to visit a British-owned bulldozer factory in Gujarat during his visit to India last week.
A number of Labour Party MPs, including Indian-origin Nadia Whittome, questioned Johnson’s visit to the JCB factory in Halol despite the use of some of the company’s equipment in the controversial demolition of properties in north-west Delhi in the wake of recent communal clashes in Jahangirpuri.
UK’s Labour MP Zarah Sultana, during a House of Commons session on Tuesday, 26 April, criticised Johnson stating that he failed to challenge Modi on the “Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) whipping-up anti-Muslim violence during his trip to India.”
Johnson’s visit to the JCB factory along with Gujarat Chief Minister (CM) Bhupendra Patel, a day after a demolition drive was carried out in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, received widespread outrage, with Amnesty International calling his visit “not only ignorant,” but adding that “his silence on the incident is deafening.”
Meanwhile, Sultana said that instead of questioning Modi, “he visited a JCB factory the day after the company’s bulldozers demolished Muslim homes in Delhi. That shows you how much he really cares about human rights.”
“Following widespread anti-Muslim violence in India which is widely seen as being whipped up by Modi and the BJP… Did the Prime Minister challenge Modi on the BJP’s role on anti-Muslim violence in India, or did the PM once again disregard human rights abuses?” she asked.
Responding to Sultana, Foreign Office Minister Vicky Ford, who represented the PM in the session, said the government condemns “any instance of discrimination because of freedom of religion or belief.”
Before Johnson’s visit, Sultana had said in a tweet, “Boris Johnson is visiting India, which has seen a spate of anti-Muslim violence whipped up by Modi and the ruling BJP. But of course, Johnson won’t raise this: After all, his own racist comments led to Islamophobic incidents surging by 375 percent.”
Further, Labour MP Khalid Mahmood criticised Johnson’s absence from the House of Commons, where he was represented by a junior minister.
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