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Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to visit United Kingdom on Wednesday, Britain does not seem wholly warm to his upcoming visit.
In a Times report, Lance Price, a former BBC journalist and former spin doctor to Tony Blair, was quoted as admitting that he was paid an undisclosed sum to write a biography for Modi - The Modi Effect. The report said, that Price had admitted to have never heard of Modi until he was approached by one of his associates.
On his official website, Price is described as a regular on the BBC News Channel, Sky News, BBC radio and LBC, while showing that his latest book has been called "The definitive account of the campaign that got Modi to where he is now," by India Today.
The Times article is not the only blip on the radar. The British media believes that the three-day tour would come in the shadow of "troubles at homes" after the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in the Bihar elections.
In an another report in The Financial Times said: "Since he swept to power 18 months ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proved to be a charismatic international statesman, impressing leaders from Shinzo Abe to Barack Obama as well as expatriate Indians with his ambition to modernise India. But his next foreign visit - to the UK this week to meet David Cameron and the Queen and to address a crowd of 60,000 British Indians at Wembley Stadium - will for the first time be overshadowed by deepening troubles at home."
Its not only Bihar elections which look to have a dampening effect on the Indian PM's UK visit. Several activists and media groups have started the "Modi not welcome" campaign in UK. Though unconfirmed, it was reported that a massive projection of Modi holding a sword in one hand and an 'Om' symbol resembling the Nazi swastika was projected on to the Houses of Parliament next to the Big Ben, recently.
Those on the 'Modi not welcome' team are South Asia Solidarity Group, Sikh Federation UK, Southall Black Sisters, Dalit Solidarity Network UK, Indian Muslim Federation, Indian Workers Association, Muslim Parliament, and Voice of Dalit International.
Earlier students, faculty and alumni of Cambridge University were reported in media as having written a letter to the university's Vice Chancellor Leszek Borysiewicz, requesting him not to invite the Indian prime minister to address the Senate, the University's most important academic body. In the letter, the protesters are said to have quoted Dadri and “ongoing attacks on academic freedom and freedom of expression in India’’, a Firstpost.com report said.
In a separate example, Pankaj Mishra wrote an explosive piece in The Guardian highlighting Dadri, Sohrabuddin case, Godhra and the rising cry of intolerance prevalent in the country.
The Financial Times, also published piece title 'Narendra Modi’s Ganges clean-up runs into the sand', which severely criticised the NDA-government's progress with plans of cleaning up of River Ganga. The report said: "The water flowing downstream from central Patna, capital of the densely populated state of Bihar, seems as filthy as ever, bubbling with raw sewage and dotted with floating plastic bags."
Last year Modi was elected member of parliament for the ancient city of Varanasi on the Ganges, took power as Indian prime minister and promised to clean up the river he called “Mother Ganges”. Eighteen months later, there are mutterings of discontent from environmentalists and the hundreds of millions of Indians who live in the river’s catchment area and depend on its increasingly polluted waters. They say the clean-up has been largely cosmetic — Modi, for example, helped sweep the mud off Varanasi’s Assi ghat in front of the television cameras — while the vital work of treating sewage and purifying the toxic industrial waste that poisons the river has not begun.
Last year Modi was elected member of parliament for the ancient city of Varanasi on the Ganges, took power as Indian prime minister and promised to clean up the river he called “Mother Ganges”. Eighteen months later, there are mutterings of discontent from environmentalists and the hundreds of millions of Indians who live in the river’s catchment area and depend on its increasingly polluted waters. They say the clean-up has been largely cosmetic — Modi, for example, helped sweep the mud off Varanasi’s Assi ghat in front of the television cameras — while the vital work of treating sewage and purifying the toxic industrial waste that poisons the river has not begun.
The British Prime Minister David Cameron however has maintained a warm welcoming attitude to his Indian counterpart. "Even I have not managed to bring 80,000 people together at one place in London, he will on Friday at Wembley. I will be welcoming him with my speech," Cameron was quoted as saying in the UK media.
