An image which claims that the UK PM Borish Johnson has cancelled his visit to India due to the ongoing farmers’ protest has been virally shared on social media sites, especially Facebook.

UK PM Johnson was expected to visit India and participate as a chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations. However, this plan was later cancelled and social media posts are claiming that it is because of the farmers’ protest.

The image which has a picture of Johnson along with a Hindi text which translates to, “Big win for the farmers on the international level: UK PM cancels Republic Day visit to India”. The image has no source or credits attached. 

The image has been shared several times on Facebook with similar captions to the above-given post.

In order to verify this claim, we did keywords search on the internet and could not find any official statements or news articles that Johnson cancelled his trip because of the farmers’ protest. However, we did find an official government press release according to which UK PM Boris Johnson had a telephonic conversation with Indian PM Narendra Modi and conveyed his regrets of not being able to visit India due to the new strain of COVID-19 which is prevailing in the UK.

Here is the press release:

"Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had a telephone conversation today with the Prime Minister of UK The Rt Hon Boris Johnson. 

Prime Minister Johnson reiterated his thanks for India's invitation for him as the Chief Guest of the forthcoming Republic Day celebrations, but regretted his inability to attend in view of the changed COVID-19 context prevailing in the UK.  He reiterated his keennees to visit India in the near future.

Prime Minister expressed his understanding of the exceptional situation in the UK, and conveyed his best wishes for the quick control of the pandemic spread.  He looked forward to receiving Prime Minister Johnson in India at the earliest opportunity after normalisation of the situation.

The leaders reviewed ongoing cooperation between both countries, including in the area of making COVID-19 vaccines available for the world. They reiterated their shared belief in the potential of the India-UK partnership in the post-BREXIT, post-COVID context, and agreed to work towards a comprehensive roadmap for realising this potential."

Therefore, the UK PM’s trip was cancelled not because of the farmer’s protest but because of the prevailing situation of the new COVID-19 strain in the UK.