Insult to nation: Shashi Tharoor on US treatment of deported Indians

New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said the manner in which Indians staying illegally in the US were deported was "an insult to India and the dignity of Indians".

He also asserted that the government needed to issue a message to the US, making it clear that it had no right to do this in such an "insulting manner".

A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar on Wednesday, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of a crackdown against illegal immigrants.

The deportees claimed their hands and legs were cuffed throughout the journey and that they were unshackled only after landing in Amritsar.

Asked about the deportation of Indians, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said, "We are protesting the way in which this was done. They have every legal right to deport people who are illegally in their country and we, if they are proven to be Indians, have an obligation to receive them … But to send them like this abruptly in a military aircraft and in handcuffs is an insult to India, it's an insult to the dignity of Indians and we should certainly protest."

The former Union minister of state for external affairs recalled how Colombia had refused to accept suspected immigrants of Colombian origin under similar circumstances and officially protested when people were sent back in handcuffs.

"You send people in a civilian aircraft, you send them normally, we will accept them if they are our citizens but you can't do this," Tharoor told reporters outside Parliament.

"The Modi government needs to issue a message, making it very clear that we accept the right of Americans to send illegal people away but they have no right to do it in such an insulting manner," he said.

"It is a humiliation that we don't have to witness it here in India," he added.

The government should take action so that this is not repeated and demand an explanation for this "atrocious behaviour", Tharoor said.