UK New Travel Policy Irks India, Here's Why

Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh have criticised the COVID-19 related travel rules imposed by the United Kingdom. According to the UK government's decision, people vaccinated in Africa and South America, and in countries including India, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Turkey, Jordan, and Russia will be considered unvaccinated.

People from this country who are visiting the UK have to undergo a 10-day quarantine on arrival in the UK and the new rules will be effective from October 4th.

Shashi Tharoor took to his Twitter and wrote, "Because of this I have pulled out of a debate at the @cambridgeunion &out of launch events for the UK edition of my book #TheBattleOfBelonging (published there as #TheStruggleForIndiasSoul). It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine. The Brits are reviewing!" Here is the tweet.

Because of this I have pulled out of a debate at the @cambridgeunion &out of launch events for the UK edition of my book #TheBattleOfBelonging (published there as #TheStruggleForIndiasSoul). It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine. The Brits are reviewing! https://t.co/YEVy3Ez5dj

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 20, 2021

Jairam Ramesh also expressed his anguish over the UK government's new rule. He tweeted, "Absolutely bizarre considering Covishield was originally developed in the UK and The Serum Institute, Pune has supplied to that country too! This smacks of racism."

Absolutely bizarre considering Covishield was originally developed in the UK and The Serum Institute, Pune has supplied to that country too! This smacks of racism. https://t.co/GtKOzMgydf

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 20, 2021

Alex Macheras wrote about the UK government's new travel policy - “UK government confirm tonight that if a person has been vaccinated in Africa, or South America or countries including UAE, India, Turkey, Jordan, Thailand, Russia… you are considered “unvaccinated” and must follow “unvaccinated” rules = 10 day home quarantine & tests."

Covishield is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and has been manufactured locally by the Serum Institute of India. UK's new travel policy has irked my Indians. One of the netizens wrote, "Also India has supplied 5 million doses of the same @OxfordVacGroup @AstraZeneca #covishieldvaccine manufactured by the @SerumInstIndia  to the UK which has been administered! So unless @adarpoonawalla knows something that we don’t know! This makes no sense!"