Johnson confuses farmers' protest in India with India-Pakistan dispute

BRITISH prime minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday(9) seemed to confuse the ongoing farmers' protest in India with India-Pakistan dispute.

WHILE responding to a question on farmers' protest by Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi in Parliament, Johnson said that 'any dispute between India and Pakistan was for the two countries to settle bilaterally'.

“Many constituents, especially those emanating from the Punjab and other parts of India, and I were horrified to see footage of water cannon, tear gas and brute force being used against peacefully protesting farmers. However, it was heart-warming to see scenes of farmers feeding those very forces ordered to beat or suppress them. It takes a special kind of people to do that ... what indomitable spirit," said British Sikh MP Tan Dhesi during the weekly prime minister's questions (PMQs) session.

"So will the prime minister convey to the Indian prime minister our heart-felt anxieties, our hopes for a speedy resolution to the current deadlock and does he agree that everyone has a fundamental right to engage in peaceful protest.”

In his response, Johnson addressed the India-Pakistan dispute, a completely unrelated matter.

“Our view is that of course we have serious concerns about what is happening between India and Pakistan but these are pre-eminently matters for those two governments to settle and I know that he appreciates that point,” he said.

Dhesi, who looked visibly perplexed, shred the exchange on Twitter. “But it might help if our PM actually knew what he was talking about," he said.

The UK government has so far refused to be drawn into the ongoing protests in India, with the foreign, commonwealth and development office (FCDO) saying the matter of handling protests was an internal one.

“The police handling of protests is a matter for the government of India,” an FCDO spokesperson said last week, following a letter initiated by Dhesi and signed by 35 other UK MPs over the issue.