New Delhi: After Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's remarks on a "new variant in Singapore", the Indian High Commissioner in the city-state received a strong objection from the Singapore government, following which the Union Ministry of External Affairs here disowned the remarks of the Delhi CM, distancing India from their implications.
While CM Kejriwal's comments prompted strong responses from foreign ministries in both countries, the High Commissioner of Singapore later on Wednesday said that his government appreciated the "crystal clear clarification" from the Centre and would like to put the episode behind.
But this came along with High Commissioner Simon Wong's warning that Singapore did have the powers to invoke misinformation laws against CM Kejriwal even as Health Minister Satyendar Jain and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia defended the chief minister's remarks and said the need of the hours is to focus on the health of children rather than focus on "where the variant is from"
The chief minister here had on Tuesday remarked that a "new variant" of the Coronavirus had been found in Singapore that was affecting more children. He called for all flights with the country to be stopped and the Centre to prepare a plan to vaccinate children here.
This evoked a strong response first from the Ministry of Health, which squarely denied the CM's claims and said "there is no Singapore variant" before adding that the one affecting children in Singapore was, in fact, the B.1.617 variant, which was first found in India.
Following this on Wednesday, the Indian High Commissioner in Singapore P Kumaran was called for a meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in the southeast Asian city-state. The MFA issued a statement, called the CM's assertions "unfounded" and said it was "disappointed that a prominent political figure had failed to ascertain facts before making such claims".
In fact, Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has also retweeted, saying, "Politicians should stick to facts! There is no 'Singapore variant'."
The MFA reiterated that the strain affecting children more in their country was in fact the one that was first found in India.
Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi, said the Indian High Commissioner P Kumaran clarified to the Singapore government that the Delhi chief minister had no competence to comment on COVID-19 variants.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Jaishankar said Singapore and India have been solid partners in combating the pandemic and appreciated the country's role as a logistics hub and oxygen supplier.
"Their gesture of deploying military aircraft to help us speaks of our exceptional relationship," Jaishankar said. "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," he said.
But even as Singapore authorities thanked the Central government for its clarifications and vowed to move on, Simon Wong, Singapore High Commissioner in Delhi said those holding prominent political offices must have a responsibility "not to propagate falsehoods".
"So indeed, in Singapore, there is an act called Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act known as POFMA. It is meant to mitigate the spread of misinformation. So we reserve the right to invoke POFMA on some of the comments and assertions made by the Chief Minister on this topic," Wong said.
However, despite the diplomatic situation that the CM's remarks caused, both the Health Minister and the Dy Chief Minister of Delhi Jain and Sisodia defended them and said it was not important what the variant but that they take care of children's health.
Jain insisted that the strain in Singapore is "very different indeed" and said, "It is wrong to say it is not a different variant... The picture will be clear in some time. We will inform you about it."
The minister said the Delhi government had also called for cancelling flights from the UK last year in light of the variant emerging there. "Then also, it was considered an unwarranted demand."
Sisodia said the same about Delhi government's earlier warning on the UK variant and added that the Centre was more concerned about protecting its image in Singapore than the health of India's children. He said, "Kejriwal talked of Singapore strain and the children. The issue is not Singapore but children."