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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Modi's speech to parliament and press conference with Cameron - Politics live

Narendra Modi addresses British parliament

Afternoon summary

  • David Cameron has insisted that he will not let concerns about Narendra Modi’s human rights record stop the government seeking to strengthen ties with India. Speaking at a joint press conference with the Indian prime minister, Cameron said that he wanted to “transform” the relationship between the two countries and make it “one of the leading global partnerships”. Playing down concerns about Modi’s role in the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, which Modi allegedly condoned, and about growing intolerance in India now under Modi’s premiership, Cameron said he was looking to the future, Cameron said:

I am pleased to welcome Prime Minister Modi here. He comes with an enormous mandate from the people of India who made him prime minister with a record and historic majority. As for what happened in the past there were legal proceedings, there were also representations from the British government at the time.

We are now discussing the future partnership between Britain and India. Both of us are backed by our countries for this parliament to work together and strengthen the partnership that we have.

But John Bercow, the Commons speaker, adopted a more sceptical stance in his speech welcoming Modi to parliament. The speech was largely positive and Bercow said India was a “standing rebuke” to sceptics who believed democracy could not work in a country of hundreds of millions of inhabitants belonging to a wide variety of ethnic and religious groups. But he went on:

To rout the disbelievers completely, however, democracy has to demonstrate that it can respect free speech and incorporate a true diversity of creeds, faiths and orientations without diminishing or disrespecting any of them.

David Cameron and Narendra Modi’s leave after paying homage at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square
David Cameron and Narendra Modi’s leave after paying homage at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters
  • Modi has rejected criticism of his conduct in 2002, when he was chief minister of Gujarat, and criticism of his record on civil liberties as prime minister. Speaking at the news conference he said:

India is a land of Gandhi and therefore there is something that is deeply entrenched in our culture, our traditions, which is that we are not accepting anything that is having to do with intolerance. Any incident that happens is a serious incident and we do not tolerate these incidents at all.

He also denied that he had been blocked from coming to Britain in 2002, saying he wanted to “correct this wrong perception”.

Modi (left) and Cameron at their press conference.
Modi (left) and Cameron at their press conference. Photograph: POOL/Reuters
Protestors demonstrating against Modi hold placards by Parliament Square
Protestors demonstrating against Modi hold placards by Parliament Square Photograph: Niklas Halle'N/AFP/Getty Images
  • Cameron has said that British and Indian companies will be announcing collaborations worth £9bn during Modi’s three-day visit to the UK. As the Press Association reports, Cameron said the UK should be India’s “number one partner” in raising finance for Modi’s plan to create 100 “smart cities” across the country (see 3.44pm) with the City of London establishing itself as the world’s centre for trading in India’s rupee currency. This process was beginning with the issuing of £1bn’s of bonds in London, including the first-ever government-backed rupee-denominated bond to be issued internationally, said Cameron. Amravati, Indore and Pune are three of the cities taking part in Modi’s smart development programme, and Cameron said he hoped British firms would get a share of the planning, design and construction work involved.

Much of India that we dream of still lies ahead of us: housing, power, water and sanitation for all; bank accounts and insurance for every citizen; connected and prosperous villages; and, smart and sustainable cities. These are goals with a definite date, not just a mirage of hope.

And, inspired by Gandhi, the change has begun with us - the way the government works. There is transparency and accountability in governance. There is boldness and speed in decisions.

Federalism is no longer the fault line of centre-state relations, but the definition of a new partnership of Team India. Citizens now have the ease of trust, not the burden of proof and process. Businesses find an environment that is open and easy to work in.

In a nation connected by cell phones, Digital India is transforming the interface between government and people.

So, Mr Speaker, with apologies to poet T.S. Eliot, we won’t let the shadow fall between the idea and reality.

If you visit India, you will experience the wind of change.

  • Labour’s economic advisory committee has met for the first time.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

David Cameron (L), Lady D’Souza, and John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, show Modi the House of Commons chamber.
David Cameron (L), Lady D’Souza, and John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, show Modi the House of Commons chamber. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Here is a quote from Modi’s speech on Gandhi.

Before Narendra Modi gave his speech to parliament, he and David Cameron visited the statute of Gandhi in Parliament Square.

David Cameron and Narendra Modi in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square
David Cameron and Narendra Modi in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square Photograph: ANDY RAIN / POOL/EPA

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, was not in the royal gallery for the speech, but he will meet Modi later this week, Labour sources say.

Modi has finished and Lady D’Souza, the Lord Speaker, is now giving what is effectively the vote of thanks.

She says she visited India earlier this year, and was very impressed by the scope of social enterprises she saw.

And she was impressed by the number of women involved in politics at all levels.

Modi says this is a huge moment in the relationship between our two countries. But we must remain sensitive to each other’s interests.

He says on Saturday he will be visiting the house of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, one of the founding fathers of modern India.

Back in the Lords, Modi is saying that he is pleased the UK and India are cooperating on clean energy.

Cameron announced 2017 will be a UK/India year of culture

Number 10 has just announced that 2017 will be a UK/India year of culture. Here is the statement from David Cameron that has just been sent out to journalists.

The great partnership between India and the UK extends beyond economic ties to the boards of The Bard and the beaches of Bollywood. We have some of the best cultural exports in the world – and it’s about time we celebrated this, together.

To mark the start of this cultural pairing, the British Library will be digitising 200,000 pages of their South Asian archives. Two Centuries of Indian Printwill be part of a major programme to make the wealth of Indian printed books held by the British Library dating from 1714 to 1914 accessible to anyone around the globe.

Madame Tussauds – whose Bollywood figures are some of the most popular in London – has also announced its first Indian venture in New Delhi, scheduled to open in 2017.

Parent group Merlin is set to invest £50m in India over ten years, rolling out other UK favourites – such as SEA LIFE aquariums and LEGOLAND Discovery Centres – across Indian cities.

Two of the most iconic British texts will tour India as part of the programme. The British Library will showcase Shakespeare’s First Folio - the first collected edition of the Bard’s plays - and the 1225 edition of the Magna Carta.

One of India’s premier museums - the CSMVS Mumbai - will tell the story of Indian civilisation in the context of world history using some items on loan from the British Museum.

The UK is already a big hit with Indian tourists. Last year saw a record breaking 400,000 visits to the UK from India and in the first half of 2015 Indian tourists spent £199 million during their stays.

Modi says there will be more investment and trade. Doors will be opened in the service sector. And the UK and India will work together on renewable and nuclear energy.

Together they will realise the opportunities of the digital world.

Modi says the progress of India is the destiny of one sixth of humanity.

With apologies to TS Eliot, Modi says, India will not let the shadow fall between the idea and the reality.

Updated

Modi says India has 800m people under the age of 35. The energy and enterprise of the youth makes the country vibrant, he says.

Bold measures are in place to reform the country, he says.

The engineering sector is become more productive, and there is a revolution in start-up enterprises.

India’s momentum comes not just from growth, but from the transformation to the quality of life in every city.

Much of this still lies ahead, in housing and power, he says.

He wants smart and sustainable cities. But these are goals with a timetable, not just a hope.

Modi says it takes an Indian icon, Tata, to run a British icon (Jaguar Land Rover) and become the largest British employer.

Modi says the UK is the third largest investor in India, behind Singapore and Mauritius.

There are 1.5m people in Britain, proud of their heritage in India but proud of their home in Britain, he says.

Modi says both countries have been touched by the life of Gandhi.

He stands here today, not as a head of government speaking in this “temple of democracy”, but as head of an institution.

And tomorrow he will be in Wembley - a place every young Indian footballer wants to visit.

Modi says much of the modern history is linked to this building.

Others have spoken on the desks of history.

Many freedom fighters of India found their calling in the institutions of Britain.

There are many things on which it is hard to tell whether they are British or Indian. such as Jaguar cars.

Indians like Bhangra rap from London, just as Britons like Indian novels, he says.

Updated

Modi is speaking now.

(He is speaking in English. At his press conference earlier he was speaking in Hindi.)

He says he is delighted to be in London. And he is truly honoured to speak in parliament.

He thanks David Cameron for hosting him at Chequers this evening.

Bercow says Modi has given much thought to how India prepares for future.

He is known as Mr Tech in India.

He has 12m followers on Twitter. (Er, no - it’s more than that - see 11.09am).

And Modi is known for holding Google hangouts.

He has recently returned from a visit to Silicon Valley. He will find the Palace of Westminster something of a contrast, he says.

But Westminster is looking to the future, he says.

Bercow says Modi is the 15th prime minister, but the first to address parliament .

It is fitting this is taking place during Diwali, he says.

He says sometimes people argue democracy cannot take place in a very large country. But India is a standing rebuke to this notion.

For democracy to work, though, democracy must respect different creeds and races, he says.

He says India will become the most populous country in the world.

So India is all our future’s, he says.

Modi's speech to MPs and peers

Narendra Modi has arrived. He is seated alongside John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, and Lady D’Souza, the Lord Speaker (Bercow’s opposite number in the Lords.)

I’m in the royal gallery in the House of Lords where Modi will soon be addressing MPs and peers.

He is not addressing a formal sitting of parliament. The royal gallery is a large hall in parliament a few dozen metres away from the Lords chamber.

There probably won’t be an pictures on Twitter because we have been told not to take photographs.

Updated

Britain agrees five-year partnership with India to develop three cities

Here is the start of the Press Association story about the press conference.

Britain has agreed a five-year partnership with India to help develop the cities of Amravati, Indore and Pune, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.

The deal was one of a raft of agreements sealed during the visit to London of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, which Cameron said provided “a real opportunity to open a new chapter in the relationship between our two countries” and develop “a more ambitious modern partnership” on an economic, defence and global level.

Speaking alongside Modi at the Foreign Office following talks at 10 Downing Street, Cameron said that British and Indian companies had announced new collaborations worth a total of more than £9bn during the visit.

And he said he wanted Britain to become India’s “number one partner” in raising finance for Modi’s plan to create 100 “smart cities” across the country, with the City of London establishing itself as the world’s centre for trading in India’s rupee currency.

This process was beginning with the issuing of £1bn’s worth of bonds in London, including the first-ever government-backed rupee-denominated to be issued internationally, said Cameron.

Amravati, Indore and Pune are three of the cities taking part in Modi’s smart development programme, and Cameron said he hoped British firms would get a share of the planning, design and construction work involved. Indian and British scientists will work together in a new 10 million research collaboration into low-cost, low-carbon energy sources for the smart cities.

Britain is already the largest investor in India among G20 countries while India invests more in the UK than it does in the rest of the EU combined.

Greeting Modi at Downing Street, Mr Cameron told his counterpart - the first Indian premier to visit the UK for a decade - that “relations between our peoples are already very strong” and he hoped that other links could be improved.

Rather than pulling into Downing Street in his convoy, Modi was brought in on foot via the Foreign Office, apparently to avoid noisy protests taking place outside.

Cameron said: “We want to forge a more ambitious modern partnership, harnessing our strengths and working together for the long term to help shape our fortunes at home and abroad in the 21st century.

“As leaders, we share similar priorities - to create jobs and opportunities for all, to protect our people from terrorism and to tackle global challenges like climate change.”

Modi said India’s relationship with Britain was “of immense importance to us”.

Here is more from what Modi said at the press conference when asked about India’s “growing intolerance”.

Updated

Modi dismisses claims there is 'growing intolerance' in India

Modi has been asked about “growing intolerance” in India.

Here is more from what Modi has been saying at the press conference.

The BBC has a live feed of the press conference on its website, but it has just stopped working.

Modi says he is glad the UK will participate in the international fleet review in India next year.

He says he is confident this partnership will grow.

The UK is the third leading investor in India, he says.

He says he is glad an Indian Railways Rupee bond will be issued on the stock market. See 12.37am.

Modi is still speaking.

That’s United Nations security council.

Narendra Modi is speaking now.

He says Cameron has shown great hope and positivity for the UK’s relationship with India.

He thanks him for setting aside so much time during the visit.

He says he is delighted to visit the UK. This is a relationship of immense importance, he says. The two countries have shared history, and people-to-people ties. And they have shared values.

So there is a special character to the relationship, he says.

He says the two countries have decided to hold regular bilateral summits.

And they will develop a partnership on aid.

They have signed a civil nuclear agreement, he says.

Cameron and Modi's press conference

David Cameron and Narendra Modi are holding their press conference now.

Cameron says that Britain and India have a key economic partnership.

Britain wants to become India’s number one partner for inward investment, he says.

He says he wants London to be a centre for offshore Rupee bonds. Plans are being announced for bonds worth more than £1bn to be traded, he says.

He says three cities in India have been identified as “smart cities” for a UK/India collaboration.

Narendra Modi has also been tweeting about his visit to London from his government Twitter account.

Hundreds of people protest as Modi arrives at Number 10

Narendra Modi was greeted by noisy protests outside Downing Street as he arrived for talks with David Cameron.

Several hundred protesters representing Gujarati, Sikh, Tamil, Kashmiri, Nepali and women’s groups chanted ‘Modi Go Home’ and ‘David Cameron shame shame’ as the Indian prime minister was welcomed around lunchtime on Thursday.

Modi, a controversial Hindu nationalist who was elected prime minister on a landslide last year, was banned from the UK, U.S, and several European countries until 2012 following anti-Muslim riots a decade earlier in Gujarat, in which thousands died. Modi was state governor at the time and while he has strongly denied any involvement in the unrest, he faced severe criticism for failing to do more to intervene.

His government has also been accused of fostering a climate that has encouraged growing religious violence, and permitting wider human rights abuses, by Amnesty International and other groups.

Many of the several hundred protesters in Whitehall cited the 2002 riots as the reason they were protesting, but others raised issues of human rights, protection for women in India and accusations of injustice against Tamils, Dalits and other religious and ethnic
minorities.

A delegation of Sikh protesters waved black flags and accused Modi of genocide in a provocative banner that also bore an image of Hitler. Dabinderjit Singh, principal advisor of the Sikh Federation (UK) said: “People genuinely fear the direction Narendra Modi is taking the country in terms of the impact on religious and ethnic minorities.

“What happens to the hundreds of millions of Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and he Dalit community in India? Where will we go?”

“We think that Britain inviting Modi here is showing support for the human rights abuses against women in India,’ said Camille Rouse of the Newham Asian Women’s Project, which works with victims of honour-based violence in East London. She said Modi had done nothing to challenge ongoing abuses against women in India. ‘He just looks the other way while women are being abused.”

A smaller group of fewer than 50 pro-Modi demonstrators, kept to a distance by police, waved Indian flags and chanted ‘Welcome Modi’.

Updated

David Cameron is meeting Narendra Modi in the cabinet room.

Before he went into Number 10 Narendra Modi inspected a guard of honour.

Narendra Modi’s inspects an honour guard during his official visit
Narendra Modi’s inspects an honour guard during his official visit Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Lunchtime summary

  • Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, has arrived in London where a few minutes ago David Cameron welcomed him into Number 10.

Protesters who object to Modi’s visit because of his human rights record have also been out in force.

Malcontents. Destabilising elements. They are the right of the party. Jeremy Corbyn and the socialist campaign group used to be called rebels – so why not call them rebels?

If they are the 4.5% [a reference to how many people supported Liz Kendall in the leadership election] then they are the extremists within the party. I take affront to the idea that people whose sole preoccupation is destabilising the elected leadership of the Labour party are ‘moderates’.

  • Bodley Head have revealed that Nick Clegg will publish a book called “Politics: The Art of the Possible in an Age of Unreason” next year. In a press notice, the publisher said:

In Politics Nick Clegg examines the fluid and unpredictable state of politics, which has seen old certainties disappear, outsider figures become mainstream, and nationalism, populism and identity politics rise up at home and abroad. More so than any other political figure, Nick Clegg has seen the volatile state of modern politics up close and personally, from his spectacular rise to national prominence at the 2010 General Election to his tumultuous experience in Government and defeat in 2015. In Politics he will draw on stories and lessons from his time as Deputy Prime Minister during the coalition government of 2010 – 2015, and offer a glimpse behind the curtains at how power in Britain really works.

Nick Clegg described the book as a reflection on ‘how the politics of reason, evidence and compromise can survive at a time when grievance and unreasoned populism are on the march at home and abroad’ as well as ‘an examination of the state of British politics, told through candid stories and observations from my time at the top and the bottom of the political ladder’.

In a survey of 1034 adults over 16 in Scotland, 58% of those expressing a preference said they intended to vote SNP in the constituency section of the May 2016 elections to the Scottish parliament, up two percentage points on the previous month. Labour gained three points to stand at 24%, with the Conservatives on 12% (unchanged) and the Liberal Democrats on 4% (-2).

In the regional vote, 52% backed the SNP (unchanged) with 25% for Labour (+2), 11% for the Conservatives (unchanged), 5% for the Liberal Democrats (-1) and 5% for the Greens (unchanged).

The same poll shows that Nicola Sturgeon is far more popular than other party leaders, with a net approval rating of +19. Cameron is far more unpopular, with a net approval rating of -47. Jeremy Corbyn (-21) is marginally more popular than the Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson (-24), but marginally less popular than the new Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale (-16), although almost half the respondents don’t know who Dugdale is. Surprisingly, 21% don’t know who Corbyn is either.

Updated

This is what the Press Association has filed about the protests.

A crowd of around a hundred protesters had gathered outside Downing Street ahead of Modi’s arrival, chanting noisily and holding placards. Messages on the banners included “Modi not welcome”, “Stop religious persecution”, and “Remove illegal blockade in Nepal”. A police cordon and vans were in position to prevent them disrupting access to the street. Roads around Westminster were closed off and helicopters were circling overhead.

Protestors demonstrating against Indian prime minister Narendra Modi hold placards and chant outside Downing Street
Protestors demonstrating against Indian prime minister Narendra Modi hold placards and chant outside Downing Street Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Updated

My colleague Esther Addley is covering the protests against Modi.

In its news release Number 10 says Narendra Modi’s visit will coincide with the announcement of plans for the UK to become a centre for Indian bonds. (See 10.41am.)

We’ve now had an announcement to the effect: the British firm Sun Global Investments and the Indian firm Zyfin Funds have announced plans to launch the world’s first Indian fixed income exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the London stock exchange. It is an investment in a basket of bonds in Indian state-owned companies, but it can be traded like a stock.

In a news release the two companies said:

The launch of the Fund will for the first time allow foreign investors the opportunity to invest in these difficult-to-access but well researched AAA rated Indian companies [like Indian Railways]. The UCITS-compliant ETF provides exposure to corporate bonds which have an average duration of over 10 years and although partly state owned, yield higher than an Indian Sovereign Bond at around 7%.

Here are more pictures of the protests.

Updated

Here is some footage of the protests against Narendra Modi taking place in Whitehall.

The tweets are from Murtaza Ali Shah, a correspondent from Geo TV, a Pakistani broadcaster.

Updated

Earlier this week Greenpeace UK issued a briefing ahead of Narendra Modi’s visit. It was prompted to do so because the Indian government has just decided to strip Greenpeace India of its legal registration, a move the charity says could stop it operating in the country. In a statement Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace India’s executive director, said:

The ramping up of attacks against Greenpeace India and the climate of intolerance they are fomenting are becoming a major international embarrassment for the Indian government. Modi has just embarked on a worldwide charm offensive to establish India as a global investment hub and a serious global player on issues like energy and climate change. His home minister’s crackdown on free speech back home will only tarnish India’s image and put off the investors Modi is trying to lure.

Gopal has written more about the issue in a blog here.

Modi has arrived at the St James’ Court hotel, according to ANI News.

Narendra Modi is staying at the St James’ Court hotel.

Here are some pictures from earlier.

Here is the scene at Parliament Square, where the flags are out for the Indian prime minister.

But it is not so good for anyone trying to drive through.

The CBI is very keen on Narendra Modi’s visit. In a press notice, it says the UK is responsible for around one in 20 private jobs in India. This is from Simon Moore, the CBI’s international director.

The Indian prime minister’s business-friendly approach has won many plaudits among industry leaders here, and we look forward to building on our already solid historic trade links to create prosperity in both countries.

Indian investment in the UK is strategically important for our manufacturing, services and IT sectors. Building further trade links with key markets is mission critical to boosting growth, creating jobs and enhancing productivity across the UK.

The UK continues to play a substantial role in the Indian growth story and there’s huge potential for sectors like insurance to blossom in future.

Incidentally, I see Narendra Modi has almost 16m followers on Twitter.

David Cameron has around 4m.

David Cameron has tweeted a video message welcome to Narendra Modi.

And Modi has tweeted a reply.

(What’s happened to just saying hello face to face?)

The Treasury minister Priti Patel (see 10.22am) and the Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire met Narendra Modi when he arrived at Heathrow.

Narendra Modi (left) is greeted by Hugo Swire and Priti Patel as he arrives at Heathrow Airport
Narendra Modi (left) is greeted by Hugo Swire and Priti Patel as he arrives at Heathrow Airport Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Narendra Modi has also issued a lengthy (but rather dry) statement about what he wants to achieve from his visit to the UK. Here’s an excerpt.

UK is one of the fastest growing G7 economies and is home to a strong financial services sector. It is known for its innovative zeal and for its creative industries. You would be interested to know that UK has the largest diplomatic presence in India and is the 3rd largest source of foreign investment in our country. India too is the 3rd largest source of FDI [foreign direct investment] (in terms of the number of projects) in UK. I see immense scope for our economic and trade relations to improve and this will benefit both our economies.

Another area of importance for bilateral cooperation is defence. We have traditionally been cooperating extensively on defence and security issues and this visit will build on strong ties. Defence manufacturing will be a prime focus in my talks. There will be deliberations on clean energy and I will seek to achieve progress in our endeavour to make clean energy more affordable and accessible for the 1.25 billion people of India, as also to enhance bilateral cooperation in the fields of science, technology and education. UK remains a preferred choice for Indian students.

My visit to UK is the first prime ministerial visit in almost a decade. I have had the opportunity to meet Prime Minister David Cameron at various international forums and our meetings have been productive. Prime Minister Cameron is a good friend of India’s, and we in India have had the privilege of welcoming him thrice during his first term as prime minister.

In a press notice Number 10 has released some details of what it hopes to achieve from Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK. Here is an excerpt.

With billions of pounds of commercial deals expected to be signed in the coming days, announcements will focus on building a relationship of shared prosperity including:

- Plans for the UK to become a centre of offshore Rupee bonds – with Indian companies expected to announce the intention to issue debt denominated in their own currency in London

- A partnership to develop three ‘smart cities’ in India – delivering UK expertise to India and bringing opportunities to UK firms

- UK to lend expertise to Indian efforts to leverage private sector infrastructure investment and increase ease of doing business

During talks in Downing Street today, the prime ministers will discuss a wide range of issues, including how we can help each other realise our ambitions for the future of our two countries through investment, innovation and growth.

At the Number 10 lobby briefing on Monday, when asked whether human rights or Gujarat would come up, David Cameron’s spokeswoman said that nothing would be “off the table” during Cameron’s talks with Modi. But journalists were given the impression that these issues were so far down Cameron’s list of priorities that it would not be surprising if he ran out of time before getting round to raising them.

Updated

Here is Narendra Modi’s plane at Heathrow.

The plane carrying Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at Heathrow Airport
The plane carrying Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at Heathrow Airport Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

And here he is getting out of it.

UK minister says 'things have moved on' since Gujarat

Priti Patel, the UK Treasury minister, has been talking about Narendra Modi’s visit on Sky. She played down concerns about human rights and Modi’s role in the Gujarat massacre. She said:

The riots had happened in Gujrat - which is my home state, and there are over 700,000 Gujratis in the United Kingdom - back in 2002. There were court hearings and that all went through the legal process in India and obviously the British government made representations on behalf of those that were affected as well. But things have moved on and prime minister Modi is now the prime minister, the elected prime minister of India. He has the mandate - one of the biggest mandates in the world, basically, when he won the election last year - and I think it’s quite right that we welcome the Indian prime minister in the way that the government is doing so for this visit. And also he is going to receive a tremendous welcome from the Indian diaspora community, particularly when he goes to Wembley stadium tomorrow evening.

I’ve taken the quote from PoliticsHome.

Priti Patel
Priti Patel Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Narendra Modi has landed in the UK.

On the Today programme this morning Lord Bilimoria, the Indian entrepreneur, crossbench peer and chairman of Cobra Beer, said that what happened in Gujarat in 2002 should not stop Narendra Modi getting a warm reception in London today.

[Modi] won a huge majority last year against all expectations ... He is constantly accused of various things right up to the elections last year. People can make those charges but his opposition were running the country for 10 years and he was not convicted, arrested for anything. We have to deal with him as a legitimately democratically elected prime minister of India.

Bilimoria also said that the current immigration rules, including the system of counting students in the main immigration figures, were discouraging to Indians wanting to study in the UK.

Our immigration rules unfortunately, thanks to our home secretary, have sent out a very, very negative perception - particularly to India. We need to change that, we need to take out foreign students, for example, out of our immigration figures. We need to be able to send that message on this visit now - we want Indian students to come to our universities. We welcome them. In fact, we want to set a target to increase the number of international students, particularly from India.

Lord Bilimoria
Lord Bilimoria Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer

Westminster is rolling out the red carpet today for Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister. David Cameron is used to hosting controversial figures, and Modi is no exception. Leader of the Hindu nationalist BJP, Modi was chief minister of Gujarat in 2002 when a sectarian massacre left hundreds of Muslims dead. Modi was accused of condoning the killings and this led to Britain, the US and some other EU countries imposing a travel ban on him. But last year he became prime minister after the BJP won the Indian elections in a landslide and, not for the first time, geopolitics and the national interest have trumped historic wrongdoing. Modi is now being feted around the world as a dynamic leader and today the government that once branded him as an undesirable will offer him an enthusiastic welcome. Tomorrow it will get even better; he is addressing a rally of 60,000 people at Wembley stadium where he is expected to be accorded the full rockstar treatment, complete with a lavish firework display.

In a statement issued ahead of the visit, David Cameron said:

This isn’t just a historic visit; it’s a historic opportunity. It’s an opportunity for two countries, tied by history, people and values, to work together to overcome the biggest challenges of our age. Prime Minister Modi and I intend to grab that opportunity with both hands. Because in doing so, we can make two of the greatest countries in the world even greater.

Here is some background reading on Modi’s visit.

A former tea seller who rose through the ranks of a Hindu nationalist and revivalist movement, the Indian prime minister is very different from the many Oxbridge-educated, or Temple-trained, or at least anglophone leaders who have previously made their way to No 10. British literature, language, values and lifestyle do not resonate with Modi in the way they did with previous generations of Indian politicians and the elite from which they were drawn.

This is true more broadly. Britain is not “just another country” for India and, given the past, never will be so but the new emerging India is less in thrall to its erstwhile colonial overlords or their legacy than ever before. The gulf between how Modi’s visit will be viewed in India and how it is seen by British officials and media will only underline that shift.

The visit of the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to the UK is the most important moment for the British-Indian relationship in generations.

This is not only due to issues of trade, student numbers or high diplomacy – although these are unquestionably important – but because his arrival today comes at a time when the British Indian diaspora has truly come of age. British Indians have reached the very top of public life, be it in business, academia, healthcare or politics. It is a group that has made, and continues to make, an immeasurable contribution to this country. This visit – Modi’s first to the UK, and the first by an Indian prime minister for many years – will be a defining moment for the community.

Indeed, I can think of no other politician in the world capable of attracting 60,000 people to Wembley stadium. Yet tomorrow’s event will be the largest event the British-Indian community has ever known – and it is funded by the diaspora. When the organisers made an appeal for funds, I was proud to contribute my pay rise for the month of November. Such funding will be used to pay for coaches taking people to and from the event: it is important that nobody should miss out.

Modi was always an odd choice to lead India into the 21st century. Meeting him early in his career, the distinguished social psychologist Ashis Nandy assessed Modi as a “classic, clinical case” of the “authoritarian personality”, with its “mix of puritanical rigidity, narrowing of emotional life” and “fantasies of violence”. Such a figure could describe refugee camps with tens of thousands of Muslim survivors of the 2002 pogrom as “child-breeding centres”. Asked repeatedly about his culpability in the [Gujarat] killings, Modi insisted that his only mistake was bad media management. Pressed repeatedly over a decade about such extraordinary lack of remorse, he finally said that he regretted the killings as he would a “puppy being run over by a car”.

More importantly, Modi was a symptom, easily identified through his many European and Asian predecessors, of capitalism’s periodic and inevitable dysfunction: he was plainly the opportune manipulator of mass disaffection with uneven and unstable growth, who distracts a fearful and atomised citizenry with the demonisation of minorities, scapegoating of ostensibly liberal, cosmopolitan and “rootless” people, and promises of “development”, while facilitating crony capitalism. To aspiring but thwarted young Indians Modi presented himself as a social revolutionary, the son of a humble tea-seller challenging entrenched dynasties, as well as an economic moderniser. He promised to overturn an old social and political order that they saw, correctly, as dominated by a venal and unresponsive ruling class. His self-packaging as a pious and virtuous man of the people seemed especially persuasive as corruption scandals tainted the media as well as politicians and businessmen in the years leading up to 2014.

Here is the timetable for today’s events.

1pm: Modi is welcomed by a guard of honour outside HM Treasury.

1.20pm: Modi visits Number 10.

2.45pm: David Cameron and Modi hold a press conference.

3.50pm: Modi gives a speech to peers and MPs in the royal gallery in the House of Lords.

5.30pm: Modi gives a speech at Guildhall in London.

Mostly I will be focusing on the Modi visit today, but I will be covering some other British politics.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Updated

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