Fox news host Tucker Carlson, famous for his far-right pro-Trump nightly entertainment show, generated a stir on social media when he claimed that India had not produced any "beautiful" buildings since the British colonisers were booted out of the country.
"Strong countries dominate weak countries. This trend hasn't changed," he said in a clip that has since gone viral on Twitter.
However, Carlson then went off the deep end: "At least the English took their colonial responsibility seriously. They didn't just take things, they added. We (the United States) left Afghanistan, we left airstrips, weapons and guns. When the British pulled out of India, they left behind an entire civilization, a language, a legal system, schools, churches and public buildings, all of which are still in use today," he said.
Carlson seems to have omitted the part about them perpetrating multiple genocides as well.
He then proceeded to justify his stance by claiming that India had not produced any aesthetically pleasing building since the British left.
"And after 75 years of independence, has that country produced a single building as beautiful as the Bombay train station that the British colonials built?" he asked rhetorically, referring to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai.
The far-right pundit's comments predictably generated a tweetstorm, with many offended Indians, including Congree MP Shashi Tharoor, seeing red.
"I think Twitter ought to have an option for something to press when you can't respond without losing your cool. For now I will content myself with," Tharoor tweeted. He made sure to add two red-faced 'angry' emojis to highlight the seriousness of the issue.
Calling out Indian media for obsessive coverage of what journalist Barkha Dutt termed "white man's orientalism," she went on to add, "Amazed at how much time Indian media is willing to expend on a US anchor who wouldn't even notice if you commented on his nation."
