ISLAMABAD: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has declined to visit India and become the chief guest at its Republic Day celebrations, due in the last week of this month.
He was supposed to be first British premier, who had accepted the invitation in 29 years after John Major. The reason cited for calling off his schedule is spike in mutated coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom and India. However, farmers and Sikh leaders are claiming that their agitation is the actual reason for the British premier changing his mind.
India is in a quandary to find a chief guest for the occasion since the world leaders are avoiding travel to the region due to obvious reasons.
Sources told The News that India was working on Afghan President Dr Ashraf Ghani and Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to make either of the two a replacement. They too are engaged with their domestic developments and Indian Ministry for External Affairs in South Block of New Delhi was yet to find a replacement.
The sources reminded that India had planned displaying its armed forces’ so-called might including recently acquired French Rafale fighter planes in the parade on Rajpath of Indian capital on January 26. Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is in Colombo, and there was buzz that Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa might be drafted as the chief guest. With the Tamil Nadu assembly election due in a couple of months, it would be a difficult proposition. Gotabaya, as the then defence secretary, had supervised the Sri Lankan army's military campaign against the LTTE in 2009, and the DMK would benefit from it if the Sri Lankan president was to take the salute on January 26, putting the AIADMK-BJP alliance at a disadvantage in the Tamil Nadu polls.
