External affairs minister S Jaishankar said in Parliament on Monday India can ‘never turn eyes away from racism’ and will champion the fight against it after a BJP leader raised the issue of Rashmi Samant, the Indian student who resigned as the president of the Oxford University’s students’ union last month after controversy over some of her socials media posts.
While speaking in the Rajya Sabha, S Jaishankar said, “As land of Mahatma Gandhi, we can never ever turn our eyes away from racism. Particularly so when it is in a country where we have such a large diaspora.” He added, “We’ve strong ties with UK. We’ll take up such matters with great candour when required.”
He further stated that the government will monitor such cases closely and raise the issue with the concerned authorities, as and when required. “We will always champion the fight against racism and other forms of intolerance,” S Jaishankar emphasised.
Rashmi Samat, a 22-year-old Indian student from Udupi, became the students’ union president at the Oxford University in a historic feat. However, reports said she was forced to quit after faced severe backlash over some past social media posts on Holocaust and other issues. She was called out for being racist with her anti-Semitic posts.
She was also criticised for a campaign post caption that separated women and trans women, with the Oxford LGBTQ+ campaign calling for her resignation.
BJP MP Ashwini Vaishnaw said in Rajya Sabha, “There appears to be a continuation of attitudes and prejudices from the colonial areas, especially in the UK. The recent case of Rashmi Samant, a student from Karnataka is a classic case in point.”
“She overcame all the challenges to become the first Indian woman president of Oxford University student’s Union. What treatment was meted out to her? Shouldn’t this diversity be celebrated, instead she was cyberbullied to the point that she had to resign,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw.
