BackBritain ends 10-year boycott of Modi
British ambassador to meet Modi to discuss a wide range of issues
Premium(Ramesh Pathania )
Ahmedabad: Britain said on Thursday it would end a 10-year boycott of Narendra Modi imposed over religious riots in Gujarat in 2002 that left, among others, three Britons dead.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi came to power shortly before the riots triggered by the deaths of nearly 60 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire that was blamed on a mob of Muslims.
He is accused of doing too little to prevent the blood-letting, which left more than 2,000 dead, according to rights groups. The government put the death toll at about 1,000.
The Gujarat government welcomed the move.
“The announcement of having diplomatic ties with the state by setting up UK high commission’s office in the state dispels the lies spread by so-called secularists and non-governmental organizations that Gujarat is no longer the best investment destination," said Jaynarayan Vyas, minister of health and tourism and state government spokesperson.
Britain’s junior foreign minister Hugo Swire asked the ambassador to India to visit Gujarat and meet Modi to discuss a “wide range of issues of mutual interests", the British foreign office said in a statement.
“We want to secure justice for the families of the British nationals who were killed in 2002 (riots), we want to support human rights and good governance in the state," the statement quoted Swire as saying. Three British nationals—Saeed Dawood, Mohammed Aswat Nallabhai and Shakil Dawood—were burnt to death in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat, a state that is governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party at the Centre.
Previously, British officials were forbidden from dealing directly with Modi, but there were contacts with senior bureaucrats in Gujarat, where British companies have invested, a person in the embassy in New Delhi said.
Britain’s effort to resume links with Modi’s regime came less than two months after a Gujarat court sentenced a former member of his government to 28 years in jail for her role in instigating the 2002 riots. The 31 August sentencing of Maya Kodnani, who served as minister from 2007-2009, was seen as a setback for Modi who is thought to have prime ministerial ambitions.
The UK nearly ended all diplomatic relations with Gujarat after the riots.
Modi visited London in 2003 but in April 2005, the UK refused a diplomatic visa, forcing him to cancel the visit. Earlier, in March 2005, the US had denied him a diplomatic visa and his personal visa was also revoked. The US embassy had described Modi at the time as a foreign government official responsible for, or had directly carried out, severe violations of religious freedom.
In Delhi, ministry of external affairs spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said: “I don’t know what normalization of ties means actually so I will have to look at what it means. We will have a look before we respond to this because this term needs to be understood what it is before I respond specifically to that."
Mint’s Elizabeth Roche and Maulik Pathak contributed to this story.
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