London miscalling

British home secretary Suella Braverman has left her job after backpedalling furiously on her statement calling Indians the biggest visa overstayers in the UK. She had conflated Indian immigration with the aims of Brexit and a proposed India-UK free trade agreement, under which New Delhi has been pushing for skilled Indians to be allowed to live and work in the UK with greater ease. India held its peace, but her remarks would have incensed Indians, including the 1.6 million-odd who have made Britain their home. It is bad form for politicians to ensnare friendly countries with unfriendly remarks aimed at their domestic constituencies. The days of Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood”-type grandstanding are long gone. So should politicking with global affairs. With Diwali nearing, Braverman began to speak of how the UK is enriched by the Indian diaspora, how leaving the EU enables the UK to “look at old friends like India”, and how the UK is “eager” to secure a trade deal with India. But ties between mature democracies must maintain a sense of predictability built on a common understanding of what binds us. These take years to build. Loose talk has no place here.