National security advisor Ajit Doval will today meet his UK counterpart Tim Barrow in London for the annual strategic dialogue.
In the backdrop of British State broadcaster BBC trying to rake up 2002 Gujarat riots and target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK becoming the hotbed of so-called Khalistan movement and Pakistan sponsored movement to keep Kashmir issue alive.
On his way back from a positive dialogue with his US counterpart Jake Sullivan in Washington, NSA Doval will be in London having a candid dialogue with Barrow on the state of bilateral relationship, global strategic environment with Ukraine war in focus and the Indo-Pacific. The two NSAs are expected to exchange notes on terrorism emanating in the Af-Pak region and the overall situation in the Middle-East.
While India and the UK are working towards signing a free trade agreement this year, the British deep state is turning out to be a serious hurdle in bilateral ties as it resents the fact that the once colony of the British empire has taken over the UK in terms of economy and global clout. According to the IMF, India is the fastest growing large economy in the world and Britain is the weakest link in the G-7 economies.
Fact is that the core of Whitehall is at odds with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and is working at cross purposes in the Indian sub-continent. Today, India and UK do not see eye to eye on Bangladesh, Pakistan and definitely not Afghanistan with London trying to act as a big brother in the Indian sub-continent with a soft corner towards Pakistan.
NSA Doval is expected to raise UK based violent extremism in the context of Sikh radical groups operating from the Island nation apart from Pak Islamist groups opposed to India on Kashmir and Citizenship Amendment Act. Despite India raising the issue of Sikh separatism in Britain through highest intelligence levels, the UK government has done little to stop the funding of so-called Khalistan terrorism via radical gurudwaras in Britain in the name of concocted atrocities against the community in India. The Modi government believes that the UK is trying to justify violence in the name of freedom of speech and using radicals as a pressure point against India.
Another area where the Modi government is very unhappy is over Britain providing shelter/safe haven to economic offenders like Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Sanjay Bhandari, and others. Even though India and Britain have an extradition treaty not a single economic offender has been sent back to India with the ball being tossed between Courts and the Whitehall.
Despite India and Pakistan having attained independence from imperial Britain 75 years ago, London still carries the imperial legacy on its shoulders and likes to politically dabble in the Indian sub-continent. It shelters BNP activists against Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif and MQM’s Altaf Hussain in Britain and also entertains Sikh separatists against India. It is now common knowledge that it was Britain and the Pakistani deep state that delivered Afghanistan to Taliban and threw the entire minorities including women and children under the bus during the August 15, 2021 takeover.
India is also upset that under the guidance of UK foreign office, the state broadcaster BBC was allowed to polarize Indians on communal lines by trying to reopen the 2002 Gujarat Riots despite the Indian Supreme Court giving a clean chit to PM Modi. Clearly, the conversation between NSA Doval and NSA Barrow is going to be professional and businesslike with the onus on the UK to make amends if it wants to do business with India.