UK has strong belief in India’s democratic values, growth story: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla

Addressing a community gathering at the High Commission of India in London on Wednesday evening, Birla shared insights from his dialogues with his UK counterpart – House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and other members of Parliament.

London: There is a strong belief in India’s democratic values and growth story here, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said in London during his ongoing visit to the UK.

Addressing a community gathering at the High Commission of India in London on Wednesday evening, the Speaker shared insights from his dialogues with his UK counterpart – House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and other members of Parliament, including former prime minister Rishi Sunak whom he thanked for his contributions to strengthening India-UK bilateral ties.

He noted that his interactions highlighted the strength of India-UK parliamentary cooperation and the multifaceted nature of the bilateral partnership across multiple sectors.

“I had a good dialogue with leading UK parliamentarians and they displayed a strong belief in India’s democratic values and growth story,” Birla said.

“Our electoral process is transparent, which has helped reinforce a belief in democracy around the world. We take pride as the largest democracy of the world, dubbed the ‘mother of democracy’, and I extend an invitation to come visit India’s new Parliament as we mark 75 years of our Constitution,” he said.

During his discussion with Sunak, the duo exchanged views on the impacts of IT, AI, social media, and fake news, emphasising the need for appropriate laws to address these challenges.

“The scale of our country’s progress is outpacing many other nations and in the coming years, India will make its mark as the topmost country to attract investments. The coming decades of the 21st century belong to India,” he added.

The BJP member of Parliament from Kota, who was greeted by a large contingent from the British Rajasthani community, also highlighted the important role of the Indian diaspora in promoting the Viksit Bharat mission of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government.

“Indians based in different countries around the world have an important contribution to make towards a Viksit Bharat. The efforts and love of the diaspora will play an important role towards this goal set by Prime Minister Modi,” Birla said.

The Speaker is on an official UK visit covering England, Scotland and the island of Guernsey and began by honouring the principal architect of the Indian Constitution at the Ambedkar Museum in north London on Tuesday.

“This visit marks a very special start of the year for us because for the first time in 17 years, we have the Speaker of the Lok Sabha of India visiting the UK, a long overdue but very important visit,” said Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami.

He pointed out that both the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha are on their second term following general elections in the UK and India last year.

“An unusual achievement in an era in which more often than not you have one term Speakers in not just in India, but also in the UK. So, we have many things to celebrate together and the thing that really binds us together is what Prime Minister Modi had described in 2015 as the living bridge. This is the encapsulation of what makes our relationship special,” added Doraiswami.

During his meeting with Hoyle, the Lok Sabha Speaker shared perspectives on strengthening bilateral ties through capacity building of legislators and covered several other issues of mutual interest, including people to people connections.

His meeting with Pat McFadden, Minister for Intergovernmental Relations of the UK, covered topics such as free trade and exchange, strong economic ties, information technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and creativity.

“Our historic relations have evolved into a robust, multifaceted and mutually beneficial partnership covering multiple sectors including defence, health, education and climate change. The resilience of our relations was evident in our cooperation during the Covid-19 pandemic including on development of vaccines. Hope that India-UK relations will receive a fresh impetus under the new government in the UK,” Birla said, with reference to India-UK bilateral ties.

In Scotland on Thursday, Birla met the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone, and First Minister of the devolved government John Swinney, besides interacting with other cross-party Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs).

On Friday, he will chair the meeting of the Standing Committee of Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) in Guernsey in his capacity as the host of the 28th CSPOC, to be held in India in 2026.