PM honours Lingayat philosopher in London
progress in bilateral defence and security cooperation since May’s visit to India in 2016, and the agreement on a number of Defence Capability Partnerships in key strategic areas, with closer military-to-military ties.
The leaders agreed to continue working together closely to combat terrorism, radicalisation and online extremism, officials said.
Modi and May also welcomed the commercial deals worth £1 billion agreed on Wednesday and decided to build on the recommendations of the UK-India Joint Trade Review to reduce barriers to trade, to make it easier to do business in both countries and to enable a stronger bilateral trade relationship for the future.
“Looking to the future, the Prime Minister and Prime Minister Modi discussed the new UK-India Tech Partnership agreed today which will create thousands of jobs and generate significant investment in both our economies. The Prime Minister said the partnership will be at the core of much that we’ll do together over the next decade,” the spokesperson said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday paid tributes at the statue of 12th century Lingayat philosopher Basaweshwara in London, but the lead organiser of the event insisted it had no connection with elections in Karnataka on May 12.
The statue, which Modi had inaugurated during his November 2015 visit, is on the banks of the Thames in the London borough of Lambeth.
It was installed by the Basaweshwara Foundation, chaired by Neeraj Patil, a doctor in the National Health Service of UK.
“We are pleased to see the Prime Minister paying tributes to the pioneer of the world’s largest democracy (Basaveshwara) in front of the mother of all Parliament (Westminister),” said Patil, a former mayor of Lambeth.
However, he insisted that “this has nothing to do with the (assembly) elections in Karnataka”.
Patil, who hails from Karnataka, was the Labour candidate in the London constituency of Putney during the 2017 general election, but lost by a narrow margin to the Conservative candidate, Justine Greening.
The Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka in March decided to recommend religious minority status for the Lingayats, who have historically been considered part of the Hindu fold.
His decision was seen as a strategic move ahead of elections in the state.
The Lingayats traces their origins to Basavanna, who was born a Brahmin but rejected the caste and ritual-based Hindu tradition.
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