PM Modi set to meet Queen Elizabeth II, Theresa May during UK trip

LONDON: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to have private meetings with Queen Elizabeth II and UK Prime Minister Theresa May during his upcoming trip to the UK for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), but his trip is also set to be blighted by protests. Modi and 52 other heads of government are due to arrive for the meeting in London and Windsor from April 16 to 20, when the UK will assume its chairmanship for the next two years. Modi is expected to arrive in the evening of April 17, following a trip to Stockholm to meet the Indian diaspora.

On April 18, according to BJP sources, Modi is scheduled to meet May at 10 Downing Street. It is widely expected that the UK and India will sign an MoU during CHOGM agreeing to facilitate the deportation of about 100,000 illegal Indian immigrants in the UK to India, the BJP source said. At 4pm Modi will have a private appointment with the Queen, the source added.

In the evening he will head to a central London venue for a one-to-one Q&A session with 1,500 members of the Indian diaspora in the UK. This event, titled "Bharat ki Baat Sabke Saath", will be televised live.

A spokesman for the BJP in the UK said "The questions have not been vetted and NRIs will be free to put whatever question they want to the Prime Minister." That will be followed by a state dinner attended by all heads of state and government in the Commonwealth. On Thursday, Modi will attend events connected to CHOGM and on Friday he will go to Windsor for a "retreat" with the other state heads.

A protest under the banner "Modi not welcome" and "Minorities against Modi" is being planned in London from April 15. According to a poster being shared on Facebook, open-top double-decker red buses filled with "families" will run from the House of Lordsthroughout central London and back to Parliament Square.

A street protest is also being organised by the Sikh Federation UK, Kashmiri diaspora, Dalits, Christians and other communities at Parliament Square on April 18.