LONDON - In an unusual event, India gets a diplomatic snub from UK over interference in country’s internal affairs.
A before the U.K. election which resulted in a big majority for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the British government sent a message to the Ministry of External Affairs and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to express its concerns that the party was taking a partisan stand on the election.
*The Hindu* has learnt that a senior British diplomat met the BJP’s Foreign Cell Head in Delhi to express the concerns, after interviews given by BJP-affiliated OF-BJP (Overseas Friends of BJP) leaders, including president Kuldip Singh Shekhawat, that indicated that the Indian ruling party would prefer a Conservative party win.
“We raised concerns over remarks made in London by OFBJP that the BJP was supporting Conservative candidates”, a source said about the matters raised during the meeting, adding that they “received assurances that [the BJP was] not.”
The interviews referred in particular to the Labour Party Conference’s “emergency motion” on the “human rights situation” in Kashmir, which it subsequently regretted, where OFBJP officials spoke of the need to defeat what they called the “anti-India” Labour party.