Narendra Modi invited to speak in House of Commons

London, Aug 13: Nearly 10 months after the British government warmed upto Narendra Modi, the India groups of the country's two main political parties have invited the Gujarat chief minister to visit the UK.

The ball was set rolling by the Opposition party's Labour Friends of India when its chairman, Barry Gardiner MP, sent a letter to Modi last week inviting him to the House of Commons to speak on 'The Future of Modern India'.

"The invitation is a culmination of several years of engagement between senior representatives of the Labour Party and Narendra Modi," the Labour MP for Brent North said. "I am sure people in the UK and indeed the international community would be very interested to meet and hear what Narendra Modi has to say first hand.

"He is a politician who cannot be ignored. I believe it's in Britain's best interests that we engage with him as both the chief minister of Gujarat and also potential prime minister," he added. "I, like many colleagues within the Labour Party, look forward to welcoming chief minister Modi to the UK.

I last had the pleasure of meeting him in Gujarat in 2009. His return visit to the UK is long overdue," said Stephen Pound MP, former chair of Labour Friends of India. In a rare show of political unity, the Conservative Friends of India issued their own invite for the chairman of the BJP's national election committee a day later on August 9.

Its co-chairman, Sailesh Vara MP, struck a personal note in his letter expressing a wish to "finally meet" Modi. "It would be a great privilege for us to host an event for you. I very much hope that you will take us up on this invitation when opportunity allows," wrote Vara, the Tory MP for North West Cambridgeshire.

The UK government, like the US, had distanced itself from Modi in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

PTI