22 MPs urge UK to halt FTA talks over Manipur unrest

New Delhi, September 27

Punjabi-origin British MP Nadia Whittome has tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons calling the UK to halt its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks with India in the wake of the ethnic violence in Manipur.

Early day motions are submitted for debate in the House of Commons for which no day is fixed. As a result, few find the light of day though they attract public interest and media coverage.

Whittome’s Sikh father had emigrated to the UK from Banga, Punjab, and her mother, an Anglo-Indian Catholic, was a member of the Labour Party. The motion has been signed by 21 other MPs and calls on London to raise the issue of human rights violations in Manipur with the Indian Government.

Speaking on the issue in New York, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said efforts were being made to bring back a sense of normalcy in Manipur and provide adequate law-and-order enforcement.

“I think one part of the problem in Manipur is the destabilising impact created by migrants,” Jaishankar said in response to a question raised on the situation in Manipur at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.