After India summoned the British High Commissioner on Tuesday over an ‘unwarranted and tendentious’ discussion on farm laws in the UK Parliament, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that in democracies, elected representatives were free to give their point of view on this issue.
“I don't blame the Government of India for doing its job, for speaking up for its point of view. But we must recognise there is another point of view & that in democracies, elected representatives are free to air their point of view on this,” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor told ANI.
Tharoor, a former Foreign Minister, also stated that there was nothing surprising in this. “I don't think there is something so surprising. We should take it as a normal give and take that happen between democracies”, he added.
“Just we, in India, can discuss say Palestine issue as we've done or can discuss if we so choose any other domestic issue of a foreign country, British Parliament has the same right,” the Congress MP further added.
The Ministry of External Affairs said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had advised the envoy that British MPs should refrain from practising "vote bank politics" by misrepresenting events, especially in relation to another fellow democracy.
(Published 11 March 2021, 05:22 IST)
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