Indian foreign ministry has said it had summoned the UK high commissioner over what it called “unwarranted and tendentious discussion” of agricultural reforms introduced by Modi government in the British parliament.
The three new agricultural laws introduced late last year have led to months of protests by farmers who see them as beneficial for large private buyers at their cost.
A discussion in UK on Monday has caused anger in New Delhi, which call it an interference in India’s internal affairs.
At Tuesday’s meeting, India’s foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told high commissioner Alexander Ellis that the debate “represented a gross interference in the politics of another democratic country,” says a foreign ministry statement.
“He advised that British MPs should refrain from practising vote bank politics by misrepresenting events, especially in relation to another fellow democracy,” it added, in an apparent reference to British lawmakers and voters of Indian descent.
The state of Punjab, that has large diasporas in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, is at the forefront of the protest campaign against Modi regime.
India summoned Canada’s envoy in December following critical comments by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The protests received global prominence after celebrities, including pop star Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg voiced their support for the movement earlier this year.
