Boris Johnson visited a JCB factory at Gujarat's Halol industrial area near Vadodara.
Tearing through memes, wisecracks and criticism, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is on a two-day India visit, on Thursday visited a factory of the British heavy equipment maker JCB at Gujarat's Halol industrial area near Vadodara.
The Prime Minister's visit to the bulldozer factory attracted outsized attention as it came amid a growing controversy over razing homes and shops by BJP-controlled governments and municipalities in a campaign that the opposition and activists say has targeted mostly Muslims.
Criticised as "tone-deaf" and "ironic", Mr Johnson's visit coincided with the Supreme Court renewing orders to stop the demolitions in Delhi's Jahangirpuri, days after a communal clash. The demolitions, which took place around a mosque, targeted "one particular section of society", petitioners had said.
Mr Johnson visited the JCB facility following a meeting with industrialist Gautam Adani in Ahmedabad earlier in the day.
According to sources quoted by news agency PTI, the two discussed, among other things, key sectors such as energy transition, climate action, aerospace and defence collaboration.
Mr Johnson landed in Gujarat earlier today for his two-day India visit. He received a grand welcome at the airport in Ahmedabad and visited Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram.
Mr Johnson's visit to India will focus on stepping up cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, driving negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries, as well as enhancing defence ties.
This is the first time a UK Prime Minister is in Gujarat, India's fifth-largest state and the ancestral home of around half of the British-Indian population in the UK.