India has made it clear to Britain that London’s decision to not recognise Covishield as a legitimate anti-Covid vaccine is "discriminatory" and it is within New Delhi’s "right to take reciprocal measures" if the matter is not resolved, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Tuesday.
"The vaccine COVISHIELD, which is a licensed product of the UK government and produced in India. We had provided 5 million vaccines to the UK government because it will be used in the national health system… Non-recognition of COVISHIELD is a discriminatory policy and the external affairs minister has raised this strongly with his counterpart," Shringla said at a press conference.
The Foreign Secretary further said that India will have the right to take the reciprocal step if the problem relating to recognising Indian vaccines isn’t resolved soon.
"I am told that the External Affairs Minister has been given the assurance that the issue will be resolved… the minister said that this issue should be resolved as soon as possible," he added.
"The non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminatory policy and impacts our citizens travelling to the UK. The External Affairs Minister has raised the issue strongly with the new UK foreign secretary. I am told that certain assurances have been given that this issue will be resolved," Mr Shringla said at a press conference in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar tweeted about discussing the matter with the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on the sidelines of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in New York. "Urged early resolution of the quarantine issue in mutual interest," Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a tweet.
The matter also snowballed with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor pulling out of several planned engagements in the United Kingdom in protest against the COVID-19 new rules put in place by the British government that require even fully vaccinated Indians to undergo 10 days of quarantine on arrival.
Taking to Twitter, Tharoor complained that "it is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine."
"Because of this I have pulled out of a debate at the @cambridgeunion & out of launch events for the UK edition of my book #TheBattleOfBelonging (published there as #TheStruggleForIndiasSoul). It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine. The Brits are reviewing!" Congress MP tweeted.
Britain’s decision is considered odd because most Indians have got doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine which is being produced by the Serum Institute of India in collaboration with the UK pharma giant under the Covishield brand. The vaccine has been approved by the WHO.
Also read: 16 European countries now open doors to those fully vaccinated with Covishield
