Despite India wholeheartedly showing solidarity with everyone ranging from the United States to Brazil, and to the other nations of the world during the testing times of the Coronavirus outbreak, unfortunately, the favor hasn't been returned by many countries for us Indians. India was literally there for everyone when vaccines were needed, medicines were in short supply, but like it's often said, there is a reason why many European countries and their American counterparts are known to be 'Colder Countries'.

And let me reaffirm, it's not just because of the weather. Now, if it wasn't Canada that was already creating a roadblock for Indians traveling on work-related or study-related trips, the United Kingdom has gone on to another level.

Yeah, that's right! The UK, under its government's new international travel rules, does not recognize people vaccinated in India as being "fully vaccinated".

© Reuters

That means, that if you got the Covishield or Covaxin shot, you still won't be bracketed under the tag of being vaccinated. The move has been branded as absolutely "offensive", "bizarre", and "racist" by a whole lot of people from India. And why shouldn't it be?

As per the new rule, vaccinated citizens from India will still have to home quarantine for 10 days in Britain, and guess what? Barring some other nations like India, residents of other countries won't have to abide by the same rule.

UK government confirm tonight that if a person has been vaccinated in Africa, or South America, or countries including UAE, India, Turkey, Jordan, Thailand, Russia…

…you are considered “unvaccinated” and must follow “unvaccinated” rules ️ = 10 day home quarantine & tests

— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) September 17, 2021

Well, on the positive side, there were a few renowned faces fighting on India's side, at least on Twitter. One of them was Shashi Tharoor, who at the back of the events, chose to pull out of a Cambridge Union debate and his own book launch events in Britain to protest against the ridiculous new rules. 

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"Because of this I have pulled out of a debate at the Cambridge Union and out of launch events for the UK edition of my book "The Battle Of Belonging". It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine." It is reported that the UK has announced that it is willing to engage with the Indian government in order to resolve the matter. 

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! https://t.co/YEVy3Ez5dj

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 20, 2021

There were others protesting the issue as well.

Ridiculously racist & discriminatory decision. https://t.co/2VTGKkCQeb

— Siddhartha Basu (@babubasu) September 20, 2021

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. https://t.co/GtKOzMgydf

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 20, 2021

Well, people from the country surely had enough of this from the UK, and they let their feelings known on Twitter.

UK and other European countries still considering Indian like 'something' inferior...clearly Racism..#NarendraModi ji... please reconsider the quarentine period of Europion citizens as Covid virus is very active there..

— RITU SHUKLA (@ritu7283) September 20, 2021

Let’s not oppose everything for the sake of oppose! Plz
This is clear vaccine racism

— Ashish (@ashishdabole) September 20, 2021

Funny with all these regulations some members of Indian cricket team contracted COVID in England or let's say English COVID

— shine n s (@nsshine) September 20, 2021

Some actually shared details of their troubles and how students are the worst affected under this flawed set of rules.

Some of us are stuck - I’m flying out next week and will quarantine and pay for day 2, day 5, and day 8 tests. Students suffer the most … if only the government had pursued this earlier in the summer.

— Aryan D’Rozario (@aryandrozario) September 20, 2021

So are the Brits who have been jabbed with vaccines made and supplied by @Wockhardt (Indian co with a plant in UK) & @SerumInstIndia also viewed as unvaccinated? #justasking

— jyothidatta (@jo_da123) September 20, 2021

This is of course disgracefully offensive and discriminatory, but the irony of it all is that the vaccinated can still be infected by, and spread, SARS-CoV-2 so making different rules for the vaccinated & non-vaccinated makes no sense in itself.

— Annette Gartland (@netpoette) September 20, 2021 

Well, it is clearly not a surprise that people are offended by this decision from the UK. But for the sake of the students and people traveling outside from India, let's hope the Indian government can find a solution to this with Britain. 

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