Forget photo shoots, these are the issues Boris Johnson should have addressed in India

India’s role in the world, and in relation to the UK, deserves far more serious attention than it currently receives, writes Vince Cable

Popular press coverage of the PM’s visit was scant, but helps to explain why Britain is not taken very seriously in India (AFP via Getty)

One little-noticed event in Boris Johnson’s calendar last week was his two-day trip to India. It merited a few photos of him in a turban surrounded by saffron-clothed priests, and the odd reference to a scrawny little rabbit he hoped to pull out of his hat, called “Brexit opportunities”.

In fact, India’s role in the world, and in relation to the UK, deserves far more serious attention than it currently receives. It matters that India is now the third-biggest economy in the world after China and the USA. It matters that this country of 1.4 billion people is managing to function as – by far – the world’s biggest democracy. And it matters that it has chosen, like most of the non-western world, to stand aside from the Russia-Ukraine war as a disinterested neutral.

Popular press coverage of the PM’s visit was scant, but helps to explain why Britain is not taken very seriously in India. There was confected enthusiasm for the export opportunities, notably the prospect of our selling more whisky to a nation composed mainly of teetotallers, and for more diggers to be sent to the UK from the Indian factory of a leading Tory party donor.