External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Parliament on Monday India can “never turn eyes away from racism” and will “champion the fight” against it, the Hindustan Times reported.
Jaishankar’s response came after BJP MP Ashwini Vaishnaw alleged in the Rajya Sabha Rashmi Sawant, an Indian student who quit from the post of the Oxford University student union president, was forced to do so as she was cyber bullied. Samant, a 22-year-old graduate student had won the Oxford Student Union election for the president’s post in Feb. However, a week later some of her old social media posts were called “racist” and “insensitive”.
Jaishankar said matters such as these will be taken up with the UK “when required”. “As the land of Mahatma Gandhi, we can never ever turn our eyes away from racism,” the foreign minister added.
Expect Gulf to help in facilitating early return of Indians to work: Minister
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday told Parliament India is fully cognizant of the plight of Indian workers and students abroad on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, and has repatriated 45.82 lakh people from 98 countries under the Vande Bharat Mission till date.
He said re-employment concerns of people working abroad will be addressed by the govt and it is working to improve economic growth and create job opportunities.
The government, he said, is also in touch with the Gulf countries for facilitating the early return of those compelled to quit jobs on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Congress, govt spar in Lok Sabha over donations in PM Cares Fund
The Congress and the govt traded barbs in Lok Sabha on Monday over donations to the PM Cares Fund, with the opposition party alleging LIC gave money to the corpus instead of providing benefits to people and union minister Anurag Thakur hitting back at it over the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation accepting funds from China. During the Question Hour, acting Leader of the Congress in LS Ravneet Singh said migrant labourers and the poor suffered during the corona-induced lockdown.“They did not get the benefits they should have got. LIC gave its funds only to PM Cares. Why is it so?” Bittu alleged and asked the minister not to give a “political answer”.
