Taking strong exception to the recent attempt to vandalise the Indian High Commission in London, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar has said “things do get my under my skin” when people do not respect India.
This sharp comment by him in a podcast interview came in the backdrop of alleged Khalistan supporters trying to vandalise the Indian High Commission on March 19. The protestors also tried to grab the Indian national flag.
Speaking on several issues related to Indian foreign policy, Jaishankar said “I had actually landed from a plane, when I saw this man climbing up the Indian High Commission in London and was trying to pull down the flag… It got under my skin.” Jaishankar.
“When people try to score points… personal points I just shrug it. When ‘I’ gets pushed, and that I is not me, but ‘India’… That sense that you are not given respect and people are condescending, some times ambush you,” Jaishankar added.
Earlier, he had accused the United Kingdom(UK) of not meeting the obligation of providing security to the diplomats of the Mission, which is expected of a country where a high commission or a consulate is located.
“On the flag and the security of the high commission, in this particular case in the UK – whenever any country sends an embassy anywhere abroad, it is the obligation of the receiving country to provide security for a diplomat to do his work.
It is the obligation of the receiving country to ensure the embassy or the high commission or the consulate and their premises are respected. These obligations were not met,” Jaishankar said at an event organised by Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya.