NEW DELHI: With UK’s MPs set to debate next week the safety of farmer protesters, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday Indian missions in the UK have made available facts about the three farm laws to the government, legislators and civil society of that country.
British lawmakers will debate the issue of press freedom and safety of protesters in India next Monday in response to an e-petition, which had crossed the 1,00,000-signature threshold required for such a debate, the House of Commons Petitions Committee had confirmed earlier this week.
Asked about the development at an online briefing, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, “All our missions abroad work to provide right information on the happenings in India to the respective governments and people of that country.”
“In this context, our High Commission in London and our Consulates in Birmingham and Edinburgh, they have made available the facts about the three farm laws to the UK government, UK’s MPs and civil society.”
Besides that, information is also being provided about the government’s efforts to resolve this issue through a dialogue with farmer unions, he said.
Earlier in the day, British High Commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, when asked about the debate set to take place on Monday, said what happens in India has ripples in the United Kingdom and gets debated as there is a large Indian diaspora.
He, however, asserted that the farmers’ protest was India’s “internal issue” and it was for it to resolve.
Farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at several Delhi border points, including Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur, since November 28, demanding a complete repeal of the three farm laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.
The government has denied allegations that it was trying to put an end to the MSP and the mandi system. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also assured farmers that the MSP would continue.