Shashi Tharoor Pulls Out Of UK Event Over Quarantine Rules For Indians, Saying They Are ‘Offensive’

By OB Bureau On Sep 21, 2021

New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has decided to pull out of an event in the United Kingdom after the country declared that fully vaccinated Indians will still have to undergo quarantine upon landing there.

In a tweet, Shashi Tharoor said on Monday, “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!”

The UK government has announced relaxation in international travel rules for vaccinated people coming in and out of England. However, fully vaccinated Indians who received Covishield the Serum Institute of India produced Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine would still be required to undergo a pre-departure PCR test and further tests on landing in the UK.

Travellers from Africa, South America, UAE, India, Turkey and a few other nations, will be considered “unvaccinated” and will have to follow the rules and stay in 10-day home quarantine.

From October 4, the current traffic light system of red, amber and green countries based on levels of Covid-19 risk will be scrapped and replaced with one red list only. India was so far on the amber list, PTI reported

Travellers from 17 additional countries with eligible vaccines, including Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, will no longer need to take pre-departure PCR tests for travelling into England.

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are among eight red list destinations moved off the travel ban list from next Wednesday. Turkey, the Maldives, Egypt, Oman, and Kenya are the others to be off the red list, the report added.

Shashi Tharoor