UK Opposition MP Bob Blackman has raised the issue of the attack on India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in London. Blackman called for a statement from the Home Secretary on the safety of Indian visitors.
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00:00Opposition Member of Parliament in England, Bob Blackman is raising the Jai Shankar attack issue.
00:05Remember that during a Business of the House session,
00:09the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee describing now the security breach
00:14which happened against Jai Shankar, India's External Affairs Minister,
00:17and called on Home Secretary U.S. Cooper to make a statement in the Parliament
00:21on the issue of safety of Indian visitors.
00:23Remember that when External Affairs Minister was visiting London,
00:28this individual, this protester, vandal, charged toward him tearing the Indian tricolour.
00:34And this could have turned fatal had he not been stopped by the cops deployed.
00:39It came soon after, however, the statement by Bob Blackman,
00:42after the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office issued a statement
00:45strongly condemning the incident outside Shattam House in Central London.
00:49And the thugs, remember, have done this earlier as well.
00:52Why was the British Authority not on stronger guard over this?
00:56A Bob Blackman says this is an attack on democracy, on our friends, allies in India.
01:07Through External Affairs Minister from India,
01:11Sri Jai Sri Ranka was attacked when he was leaving a public venue
01:21when he'd been addressing an audience of Indian people in this country.
01:26He was attacked by Pakistani thugs.
01:29This is against the Geneva Convention
01:32and it appears that the police and the security forces failed to ensure that he was made safe.
01:38Now this is an affront to democracy, it's an affront to our friends and allies in India
01:45and we need to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
01:48So will the Leader ensure that the Home Secretary or appropriate Minister
01:54makes a statement to this House about what protection we're going to make sure
01:58when we have external visitors?
02:01My colleague Shivani Sharma joining me on the phone line for this.
02:04Shivani, I think it is such a boost that an opposition UK Member of Parliament is speaking for India.
02:10I remember Bob Blackman has done this earlier as well.
02:12Tell us more about how India is raising this issue and about the support coming in from the UK.
02:19Pooja, see after this incident and the pictures went viral,
02:22Indian External Affairs Minister had already, the Ministry in fact,
02:27it had already issued a statement calling this incident, condemning this incident
02:31and raising this issue with United Kingdom.
02:34They say that the country that was hosting this particular visit by Dr S.J. Shankar
02:39needs to be responsible, they need to have some action against these goons,
02:44the Khalistani goons that were raising slogans against India.
02:47They were holding their Khalistani flag.
02:49They tried to attack Dr S.J. Shankar's convoy.
02:53And after which we've also seen that the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
02:58had issued a statement, Pooja.
03:00They had strongly condemned this incident outside the Chatham House in Central London.
03:05And now what we are also getting is Bob Blackman who has been raising such issues
03:12in the House of Commons in UK.
03:14He has said that this was an attack, this was the attack by Khalistani thugs
03:20and UK needs to be more responsible and action needs to be taken against these Khalistanis
03:25who've been raising these anti-India slogans and attacking the guests who are there in the country.
03:30This is very important Shivani because it's someone in the opposition raising this
03:33in the government or so to say in the House there in the Parliament in UK
03:40because that will add on to the questions about what were the authorities thinking at that point.
03:46Bob Blackman has been India's friend and ally for years now.
03:49Shivani, thank you very much.