By Alasdair Pal
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The Indian Foreign Office said on Tuesday it had summoned the UK High Commissioner over an unjustified and trending discussion of Indian agricultural reforms in the British Parliament.
Three new agricultural laws introduced by India late last year have led to months of protests by farmers, who are angry at what they see as soups for large private buyers.
A debate among British lawmakers sparked outrage in New Delhi on Monday, accusing MPs of interfering in India’s domestic affairs.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Foreign Minister Harsh Vardhan Shringla told Alexander Ellis, who was appointed envoy earlier this year, that the debate was a serious interference in the politics of another democratic country, according to a statement from the ministry.
“He has advised British MPs to refrain from voting on the bench by misrepresenting events, particularly with regard to another fellow democracy,” he added, in an apparent reference to British lawmakers and voters of Indian descent.
A spokesman for the British High Commission, as the country’s embassy in India is known, declined to comment.
Unrest was particularly intense in the state of Punjab, with large diasporas in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.
India summoned the envoy of Canada in December after critical comments by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The protests gained worldwide fame after celebrities including pop star Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg expressed their support for the movement earlier this year.
(Reported by Alasdair Pal in New Delhi, edited by William Maclean)