FARM REFORM INDIA’S DOMESTIC ISSUE, WILL TRACK PROTEST CLOSELY: UK LEADER

Fri 12 February 2021:

Agricultural reform is a domestic policy issue of India, the Leader of the House of Commons has said in Parliament, reflecting the UK government’s stance over the farmer protests in New Delhi.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, in response to demands for a debate over the issue in the chamber from Opposition Labour MPs on Thursday, acknowledged that the issue is a “matter of concern” for the Commons and across constituencies in the UK and that Britain will continue to champion human rights globally, including through its current chairmanship of the United Nations.

“As India is our friend, it is only right that we make representations when we think that things are happening that are not in the interests of the reputation of the country of which we are a friend,” he said, adding that UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has raised the matter with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during his India visit in December last year.

“The UK government will continue to follow the farmers’ protest closely. Agricultural reform is a domestic policy issue for India. We will continue to champion human rights globally, and having the chairmanship of the UN Security Council this month is a part of that,” Rees-Mogg noted.

The leader was responding during a regular Business of the House sitting as MPs debated matters to be addressed in upcoming Parliament sessions.

Labour’s shadow Leader of the House, Valerie Vaz, had raised the issue of the farmers’ protests being considered for a backbench debate by the Petitions Committee after an e-petition on the official parliamentary website crossed the required threshold of 100,000 earlier this month.

However, the debates, usually held in Westminster Hall within the Commons complex, remain suspended due to the coronavirus lockdown restrictions and she sought a “hybrid” solution of using live streaming as a possible option.

“Satyagraha is the Gandhian peaceful protest that is in the Indian DNA, but we have seen scenes of terrible violence against those who are protecting their livelihoods. I have had no response to my letter to the Foreign Secretary (Raab) yet,” said Ms Vaz, a Goan-origin MP.

Fellow Labour MP Tanmanjit Singh Dhesi also pushed for a debate over “the largest protest on the planet”, in the main Commons chamber itself.

“Given our serious anxieties, more than 100 honourable members signed a letter to the Prime Minister (Boris Johnson) seeking his intervention. Well over 100,000 constituents — incredibly, from every single one of the 650 UK constituencies — have signed an online petition, including more than 3,000 from my Slough constituency,” said Mr Dhesi, the first turbaned Sikh MP in the Commons.

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping at several Delhi border points since November last year, demanding the government to repeal three farm laws and provide them legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

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