The UK government’s new international travel rules, which do not recognise people vaccinated in India as being “fully vaccinated”, have been blasted as “offensive” “bizarre” and “racist”. The new rules mean people vaccinated in India will still have to home quarantine for 10 days in the UK when those vaccinated in scores of other countries will not.
Aware of the backlash on social media after senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor pulled out of a Cambridge Union debate and his own book launch events in Britain to protest against the latest curbs, the UK announced it was willing to engage with the Indian government to resolve the matter. Tharoor tweeted: “It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine.”
Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh tweeted: “Absolutely bizarre considering Covishield was originally developed in the UK and the Serum Institute, Pune has supplied to that country too! This smacks of racism.”
A British high commission spokesperson in New Delhi told TOI: “We are engaging with the government of India to explore how we could expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India.”
Rajya Sabha MP and Congress politician Anand Sharma said the UK government’s decision to not recognise fully vaccinated Indians is “discriminatory, racist and deserves the strongest condemnation”. In a series of tweets on Monday, Sharma said Covishield is the same as Astrazeneca in UK and manufactured under license by Serum Institute of India and exported to European countries, including UK. He also said that the vaccine has also been approved by the WHO.
“A humiliation of India — the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. Indian students & citizens are being harassed and fleeced for exorbitant tests. Urging @PMOIndia to take a stand against UK’s double standards & cancel the proposed India-UK trade talks,” Sharma said on Twitter.
On September 17, the UK had announced new rules for international travel to replace the current system of red, amber and green. The new rules divide countries into red and the rest of the world and come into effect at 4 am (UK time) on October 4.
Whilst the red list rules will remain the same regardless of vaccination status, the rules for people arriving in the UK from the “rest of the world” – which includes India – will differ depending on whether the traveller is “fully vaccinated” or not.
Those deemed as “fully vaccinated” will no longer have to home quarantine for 10 days, no longer need to take a pre-departure test, nor take a day 8 Covid-19 test. They just need to take a Covid-19 test on day 2 after they arrive. But people vaccinated in India will be treated as “unvaccinated” as the UK only considers fully vaccinated to be those who have been vaccinated under an approved vaccination programme in the UK, Europe or the US, or who were vaccinated in 17 other countries, including Australia, Israel, Japan and Singapore. India, Pakistan and many other countries are not on that list. Those vaccinated in India will still have home quarantine for 10 days, take a pre-departure Covid test and take Covid tests on days 2 and 8.
National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK chairperson Sanam Arora slammed the measures as “bizarre” given that Covishield is the “same drug” as the AstraZeneca vaccine administered to UK residents. “Students are disturbed by what they feel is a discriminatory move that means they are being treated differently to their counterparts from America and the EU,” she said.
Indian National Students Association UK president Amit Tiwari said it was time the UK government stopped viewing Indian students as “cash cows”. “These double standards are creating a lot of financial hardship and stress,” he said.
“Quite something for UK to take such a stance against so many countries’ vaccine rollouts… especially those countries administering the *exact same* vaccines as UK,” tweeted aviation analyst Alex Macheras.
