Kejriwal doesn’t speak for India, says EAM after Singapore envoy objects to remarks

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 19

Singapore reserved the right to prosecute Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over his “unfounded assertions” on Facebook and Twitter, Singapore High Commissioner Simon Wong said here on Wednesday.

“We reserve the right to invoke the ‘Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act’ (POFMA) on some of the comments and assertions made by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal,” Wong told journalists when asked about the lack of apology from Kejriwal and Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia claiming that the Singapore Education Minister had warned of a Covid strain particularly impacting children.

The Singapore envoy appreciated the “crystal clear” clarifications by the Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar and MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi and said it was time to turn the page. He noted that Jaishankar had conveyed that Singapore and India are solid partners in the fight against Covid, that the Delhi CM does not speak for India and the comments made are irresponsible.

Kejriwal’s statement that a very dangerous “Singapore strain” of Covid could most affect children had from Tuesday night morphed into a unique diplomatic battle in which the Indian and Singapore Foreign Ministries vied to put down his claim.

The MEA, in an admission that is rare, acknowledged publicly that its envoy was summoned for a demarche by the Singapore Foreign Office.

Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan also took to the social media to state that there is “no truth whatsoever in the assertions". 

There is no truth in the assertion that there is a new COVID strain in Singapore. Phylogenetic testing has shown that the B.1.617.2 variant is the prevalent strain in many of the COVID cases, including in children, in recent weeks in Singapore.https://t.co/uz0mNPNxlE https://t.co/Vyj7gyyzvJ

— Singapore in India (@SGinIndia) May 18, 2021

Minutes later, Jaishankar appreciated Singapore’s role as a logistics hub and oxygen supplier but took on Kejriwal for “irresponsible comments from those who should know better.’’

Also read: 

• Sisodia defends Kejriwal's remarks on 'new' Singapore Covid strain

Pointing out that such comments can damage long-standing partnerships, Jaishankar said “the Delhi CM does not speak for India”.

Balakrishnan responded by thanking Jaishankar and calling upon all sides to “focus on resolving the situation in our respective countries and helping one another”.

There was no talk, however, on assessing whether the strain was actually that dangerous as claimed by Kejriwal to merit a shutdown of flights between the two countries, as suggested by him. Singapore has stuck to an official line that says the dominant strain of Covid is of B.1.617.2 which came from India. 

However, irresponsible comments from those who should know better can damage long-standing partnerships.

So, let me clarify- Delhi CM does not speak for India.

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 19, 2021

However, it emerges that the Singapore Ministry of Health had called the B.1.617.2 as an “Indian variant”. In a press release on May 4, it had spoken of identifying 60 new cases in Singapore of which there were “seven local cases with B.1.617.2 (Indian) variant”. It is not known whether the Indian mission in Singapore had pushed back against the Singapore Ministry of Health terming the strain as an Indian variant.

Almost the entire western media has termed B.1.617.2 as an “Indian strain” though the political leadership such as the UK Health Minister Matt Hancock or US Secretary of State Joe Biden has never linked this variant to India.

There is heightened sensitivity among governments about linking any strain of the Covid virus to their nations after Beijing aggressively pushed back against attempts to brand Covid as the “Chinese virus”.

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