Message will have to be conveyed delicately: Tharoor on treatment of deportees from US

New Delhi: The way a batch of Indians were deported from the US has naturally caused a great deal of anxiety, resentment and anger in India and New Delhi will have to "delicately" convey a message to Washington behind closed doors on this, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said on Monday.

The MP from Thiruvananthapuram made the remarks in response to a question during an interaction at an event here on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on a two-nation tour with the US being in the second leg of his visit.

The interaction was hosted at the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) on the occasion of the launch of the book 'Indian Parliament: Shaping Foreign Policy' by veteran journalist and scholar K V Prasad.

PM Modi, during the two-day working visit to the United States from February 12, will hold a bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump and interact with business leaders and members of the Indian community.

At the book launch event, after his speech as the chair of the session, Tharoor, who also heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, fielded a swathe of questions from the audience on subjects ranging from the Bangladesh situation, ties with Pakistan, Prime Minister Modi's visit to the US to nuances of parliamentary democracy.

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

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

"Two other areas of sensitivity that have just arisen, one of course not so much as the deportation of illegal immigrants, entirely appropriate. But, the manner of the deportation has naturally caused a great deal of anxiety, resentment and even anger in India," Tharoor said.

"Somehow the message will delicately have to be conveyed behind closed doors and this must never be repeated," he said.

The former minister of state for external affairs said having Indians arriving in their homeland in handcuffs has "not played well with anyone in the political spectrum." "But, if anyone enters a country illegally that country has a right to deport. And, if your identity and nationality is not disputed, if your identity is proven to be Indian, India has an obligation to take them back," the Congress MP said.

These two things are beyond debate, Tharoor asserted.

"Therefore that's not where an argument should lie. The argument should lie that treat our people with respect because that is how we would treat your people if we were expelling any nationals of your country.

"Treat them with respect, they are not criminals, rapists or murderers. They are illegal immigrants and once they have left your soil, they don't need to be handcuffed. And, certainly, shouldn't be mistreated," he said.

Tharoor conjectured that "some unpredictable issues may also come off the cuff" during the Modi-Trump meeting in the US.