India-UK ties: Dump the old baggage and focus on trade and multilateralism

livemint.com:

Keir Starmer finally has the mandate and credentials to shake off the historical burden which has dogged ties between India and Britain’s Labour Party since the 1930s, a long arc that began with the jaundiced view taken of Mahatma Gandhi by Ramsay MacDonald, Labour’s first elected prime minister, and terminated in former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s apparent positions on Indian policy. Starmer, who took his Labour Party to a historic landslide win in Britain’s Parliamentary elections, now has the tailwind to re-imagine London’s ties with India, which is the world’s fastest growing major economy and gaining heft.

Mutual ties need not be burdened by the weight of MacDonaldism, which viewed the Congress Party’s call for independence through imperialist lenses. It should also not be held hostage to constituency pandering, as was the case when a former Labour foreign secretary abandoned objectivity in the UK’s foreign policy towards India to please a section of voters.

Our bilateral engagement is robust and multi-faceted, spanning trade and economy, defence and security, climate change, science and technology, among other fields. Two areas that could benefit both nations need renewed focus.

The first is trade ties, which should be strengthened through a free trade agreement (FTA) that has been in the works for some time now. After 14 rounds, talks remain inconclusive; senior British trade negotiators unsuccessfully tried a “last gasp" attempt in January 2024 before elections began in both India and the UK.

Former Tory prime minister Boris Johnson had spiritedly promised to wrap the deal by Diwali 2022, but is unlikely to be finalized by even this Diwali, given that London’s new regime will need time to grasp details. But