Insular Britain

The UK should be more welcoming of Indians

British Prime Minister David Cameron had said during his visit to India that there would be no limits on students and workers - quickly changed to graduates and business people - who would be welcome to the United Kingdom. Some UK observers even speculated that the real purpose of the trip was to assure India that Indian companies would be able to supply cheap temporary labour into the European Union but primarily into the UK, as part of the bilateral EU-India free-trade agreement. A scant four months later, his government has now announced a pilot scheme that will require a cash bond of £3,000 (about Rs 2.75 lakh at the current exchange rate) for selected applicants from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nigeria and Ghana for a visa for six months, as a deterrent against overstaying.

The UK home secretary attempted to put a positive spin on this retrogressive measure by saying that "This is the next step in making sure our immigration system is more selective, bringing down net migration from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands while still welcoming the brightest and the best to Britain." Similar schemes in Australia and New Zealand were cited in support of the proposed measure, but that Canada had to abandon its own bond plan in the teeth of opposition was not mentioned. Also missing was any reference to the immigration reform currently under way in the United States, the country that attracts the most immigrants and faces major problems on this account. This is a disappointing rejection of Britain's responsibility as a leading nation of the Commonwealth, and makes a mockery of Mr Cameron's idea that the two countries' history allows them to have a special relationship of some sort.

By placing India among the habitual abusers of visit privileges, Britain also worryingly ignores the rich contributions people and organisations of Indian origin have made to the island nation. In 2008, the then second-largest auto maker Ford put the Jaguar Land Rover operations on the block after losing billions. When the Tatas successfully bid for it, apprehensions that this iconic British auto maker would soon disappear were heard loud and clear. In the five years since, Jaguar Land Rover has returned to robust health with handsome profits and a respectable 25-30 per cent share of auto manufacturing in the UK, has added jobs, made large investments, and has provided profitable opportunities for component manufacturers. The UK has several persons of Indian origin who are among the leading lights of its scholarly and cultural milieu. Salman Rushdie is the prime British contender for the literature Nobel. Ravi Bopara narrowly failed to win the Champions Trophy single-handedly for England. These entities are a significant part of the comity that helps Britain retain a semblance of being Great. The present generation of Conservative leadership needs to be reminded of this as it tries yet again to revive Margaret Thatcher's strenuous efforts to make it Little. It also needs to know that India too can play the game: perhaps it is time for India to put in place reciprocal visa measures for British visitors.