Prime Minister Narendra Modi was shown friendship at the official level by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who apparently also sought to cash in on Mr Modi’s popularity with a section of British Indians by showing up at the Wembley stadium — where the Indian leader was given an impressive reception — with his wife draped in a sari. The British Indian vote now matters and the British leader may just gain something with the Indian constituency by being seen alongside Mr Modi in an “Indian” setting.
That said, the Indian leader’s visit which ended on Saturday is likely to raise the question about how much people-to-people goodwill Mr Modi found in Britain, although the business side of the trip seemed satisfactory.
This PM talks up trade and investment wherever he goes. How much of this eventually materialises will depend on how welcoming we are to foreign business entities in helping them start profitable activities by loosening the red tape, which remains pretty notorious in spite of all the right noises being made by the establishment.
Also, after BJP’s crushing Bihar defeat and the political impact this could have in the country, Britain is likely to be a shade chary before pumping in big sums. They will be most eager to see if the Modi government can deliver on its promises of creating the right climate for international investments. With the promised loosening of FDI in defence, the main Opposition party Congress and the RSS-affiliated trade union have expressed their unhappiness.
Still, the British have promised investments in India worth about £9 billion across a broad area that includes digitisation, the smart cities project, and defence. They would have been relieved to learn from the Indian leader that retrospective taxation (under which Vodafone, a British enterprise, had been asked to cough up $2.5 billion) was now dead and that India would offer a stable tax and policy regime.
Indian businesses in the UK (Indian FDI has gone into Britain) too have a wish list, which includes liberalising visa regimes for employees of Indian enterprises in that country. It is to be seen to what extent British policy is changed to accommodate this.
The British press gave Mr Modi a torrid time on the issue of “rising intolerance” and the curbing of constitutional liberties in India. The 2002 violence in Gujarat was recalled. The PM was defensive and, if only for the sake of form, had to take refuge in reiterating that India was a diverse country and the government respected diversity. But are the British people fully persuaded, barring those who are carted by RSS-affiliates to venues such as Wembley and Madison Square Garden?
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