Ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United Kingdom in November, many British MPs are calling on their Prime Minister David Cameron to raise the issue of human rights violations in India.
As many as 39 British MPs, including Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, have signed an Early Day Motion that was tabled in July.
An Early Day Motion is a 'formal motion submitted for debate in the House of Commons' in the UK Parliament and is usually used to draw the government's attention to causes.
The motion, titled 'Humanitarian Situation in India', calls attention to, among other things, India's ban BBC's documentary 'India's Daughter' in March this year.
The Modi government's ban on the documentary about the gruesome 16 December Delhi gang-rape had been criticised in the UK.
The motion also notes the Indian government's ban on Indian Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai from travelling to the UK to address British MPs.
Among the other issues raised in the motion are the human rights violations in Kashmir as reported by Amnesty International and Irom Sharmila's hunger strike against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
MPs mostly of the UK's Labour Party and Scottish National Party have signed the motion.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn had in 2013 sponsored a motion calling for the UK to reinstitute a ban on Modi, who was then the Gujarat Chief Minister, over his role in the communal riots in the state.
However, several Labour MPs, mostly those of Indian origin, including Keith Vaz, have gone all out to welcome the Indian Prime Minister by even donating their pay rise for the month of November towards hosting a grand reception for Modi at Wembley Stadium in London.
Modi will reach London on 12 November for a three-day visit to the UK, and will address a huge Indian diaspora a Wembley on 13 November.
Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the UK in nearly 10 years, with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh having visited the country last in 2006.
