PM Narendra Modi to visit UK – huge assembly planned
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s next foreign visit is to the UK this week to meet David Cameron and the Queen and to address 90, 000 strong British Indians at Wembley this Friday. Stadium Heralds new strategic relationship with UK and some £15bn of trade and investment deals are expected. Modi remains focused on the economy of the world’s largest democracy, as GDP growth is up and inflation is down, foreign investment is up and the downward trend in the current account deficit. Revenues are up and interest rates are down.
Modi whose father was a tea-seller at a small Gujarat train station will lunch with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, and stay with David Cameron at Chequers. Cameron has been to India 3 times since 2010. The packed three-day schedule of high-profile events is organised through Downing Street.
For 10 years as chief minister of Gujarat the Western state of India, Mr Modi was persona non grata for Britain, subject to a travel ban and a boycott by British diplomats in the country over anti-Muslim riots in his home state of Gujarat in 2002. Modii is Hindu. Due to economic interest James Bevan – the UK’s High commissioner in India met Modi on 22nd October 2012 to end the boycott. Britain had long been critical of Modi’s failure to stop anti-Muslim rioting that left at least one thousand people dead. Cameron, defending Modi said “In the last 12 months, there have been significant developments in the legal process following the 2002 Gujarat riots, including convictions in a number of high profile cases. We believe that the best way forward to achieve our wide-ranging objectives – including human rights- is to ensure that the UK can provide a full and consistent range of services across India.”
During his visit, on November 12 on his way to Turkey to attend the G20 leader’s summit in Antalya scheduled for November 15 and 16, British multinationals hoping to announce deals of up to £10bn, including the sale to India by BAE systems of 20 more Hawk trainer aircraft assemble in Bangalore. He will stay at David Cameron’s country residence address the two Houses of Parliament, visit Indian owned businesses and sites of Indian cultural importance.
Indians are now the UK’s largest ethnic community with a large selection of them being from Gujarat. Over 400 community organisations have been confirmed as Welcome partners for the grand reception planned for Modi at Wembley Stadium on Friday 13th November.
Modi in a recent speech in New Delhi said “the fiscal deficit is down and the rupee is stable, obviously, this did not happen by accident.”
For more information on this exciting visit, please keep tuned to The Saturn Herald.