UK MP raises issue of S Jaishankar's security breach in Parliament

India Today

UK Opposition MP Bob Blackman has raised the issue of the attack on India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in London. Blackman called for a statement from the Home Secretary on the safety of Indian visitors.

Transcript

00:00Opposition Member of Parliament in England, Bob Blackman is raising the Jai Shankar attack issue.

00:05Remember that during a Business of the House session,

00:09the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee describing now the security breach

00:14which happened against Jai Shankar, India's External Affairs Minister,

00:17and called on Home Secretary U.S. Cooper to make a statement in the Parliament

00:21on the issue of safety of Indian visitors.

00:23Remember that when External Affairs Minister was visiting London,

00:28this individual, this protester, vandal, charged toward him tearing the Indian tricolour.

00:34And this could have turned fatal had he not been stopped by the cops deployed.

00:39It came soon after, however, the statement by Bob Blackman,

00:42after the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office issued a statement

00:45strongly condemning the incident outside Shattam House in Central London.

00:49And the thugs, remember, have done this earlier as well.

00:52Why was the British Authority not on stronger guard over this?

00:56A Bob Blackman says this is an attack on democracy, on our friends, allies in India.

01:07Through External Affairs Minister from India,

01:11Sri Jai Sri Ranka was attacked when he was leaving a public venue

01:21when he'd been addressing an audience of Indian people in this country.

01:26He was attacked by Pakistani thugs.

01:29This is against the Geneva Convention

01:32and it appears that the police and the security forces failed to ensure that he was made safe.

01:38Now this is an affront to democracy, it's an affront to our friends and allies in India

01:45and we need to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

01:48So will the Leader ensure that the Home Secretary or appropriate Minister

01:54makes a statement to this House about what protection we're going to make sure

01:58when we have external visitors?

02:01My colleague Shivani Sharma joining me on the phone line for this.

02:04Shivani, I think it is such a boost that an opposition UK Member of Parliament is speaking for India.

02:10I remember Bob Blackman has done this earlier as well.

02:12Tell us more about how India is raising this issue and about the support coming in from the UK.

02:19Pooja, see after this incident and the pictures went viral,

02:22Indian External Affairs Minister had already, the Ministry in fact,

02:27it had already issued a statement calling this incident, condemning this incident

02:31and raising this issue with United Kingdom.

02:34They say that the country that was hosting this particular visit by Dr S.J. Shankar

02:39needs to be responsible, they need to have some action against these goons,

02:44the Khalistani goons that were raising slogans against India.

02:47They were holding their Khalistani flag.

02:49They tried to attack Dr S.J. Shankar's convoy.

02:53And after which we've also seen that the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

02:58had issued a statement, Pooja.

03:00They had strongly condemned this incident outside the Chatham House in Central London.

03:05And now what we are also getting is Bob Blackman who has been raising such issues

03:12in the House of Commons in UK.

03:14He has said that this was an attack, this was the attack by Khalistani thugs

03:20and UK needs to be more responsible and action needs to be taken against these Khalistanis

03:25who've been raising these anti-India slogans and attacking the guests who are there in the country.

03:30This is very important Shivani because it's someone in the opposition raising this

03:33in the government or so to say in the House there in the Parliament in UK

03:40because that will add on to the questions about what were the authorities thinking at that point.

03:46Bob Blackman has been India's friend and ally for years now.

03:49Shivani, thank you very much.

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