The Modi show

Coming at a time when India’s growing intolerance under the BJP government is making the news, the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United Kingdom garnered sufficient controversy. Rights campaigners throughout the world had ensured that as chief minister of Gujarat, Modi was persona non grata in most western countries, including the UK, for over a decade. But now, as prime minister, Modi had the red carpet rolled out for him on his visit to the UK – complete with lunch with the Queen, a stay at Prime Minister David Cameron’s country retreat and an address to the British parliament. Dissent against the visit started well before Modi arrived in London; 39 British MPs signed a motion in July calling on Cameron to raise human rights concerns, including political prisoners and Kashmir, with Modi. In 2013, the now leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn had asked for the UK reinstating the ban on Modi entering the country; however, Corbyn did meet with Modi during the latter’s recent visit to the UK.
As over 800 protesting Indians greeted Modi at Downing Street, the British prime minister ended up serving as the Indian prime minister’s first line of defence. The reason is simple. At the end of the visit, Cameron and Modi have announced 20 business deals worth $13.7 billion between the two countries. Everyone wants a share in India with the country being projected as the next global power, and Modi’s trip to the UK was as much about showmanship as it was about diplomacy. In London, the Indian prime minister addressed 60,000 people at the Wembley Stadium. Ironically, Modi promised to take India out of poverty and spoke of the diversity of India’s peoples. Modi’s chief aim seems to be to build ‘Brand India’. With the visit coming after the ruling BJP’s embarrassing defeat in Bihar and the return of a number of awards by Indian writers and artists in protest, Modi is using his foreign trips to sprinkle glamour on the serious issues that plague India domestically. After the US, the UK has also played another uncritical host to the Modi show. There is no better reminder than this that in global politics, human rights concerns are trumped by business interests.