Amid BBC series row, Rishi Sunak joins India-UK strategic dialogue

New Delhi, February 5

National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met his UK counterpart Tim Barrow in London to find commonalities in their respective positions on Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ukraine and Afghanistan. In a “special gesture”, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joined the meeting between Doval and Barrow.

Special gesture

A special gesture by PM Rishi Sunak to join for a while the India-UK NSA dialogue between Sir Tim Barrow and Doval at Cabinet Office. Indian High Commission in London

The UK has responded in Parliament to diaspora protests across the country over the two-part series by declaring the BBC as a media outlet “independent in its outlet” and reiterating its commitment to enhance ties with India.

The annual strategic dialogue, taking place against the backdrop of the bad blood created by the BBC documentary on the Gujarat riots, attempted to resolve the contradiction of the two sides being keen on improving trade ties but at odds on political issues.

Sunak on Friday in his brief comments highlighted the UK government’s support to deepen strategic partnerships in areas such as trade, defence and S&T. Doval had stopped over in London for the dialogue on his way back from Washington where he met his US counterpart Jake Sullivan for similar talks. Doval is now scheduled to visit Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev.

The two sides are understood to have touched on the issue of residents in the UK advocating violent extremism in Punjab and Kashmir and the Citizenship Amendment Act. The Indian view is that besides perfunctory police deployment at the Indian missions due to aggressive demonstrations advocating separatism in Kashmir and Punjab, the UK Government has not acted to choke the sources of funding to the radical gurdwaras in Britain.

Doval is understood to have touched on the ineffectiveness of the extradition treaty with stalemate continuing for Indian economic fugitives like Nirav Modi, Sanjay Bhandari and Vijay Mallya.