Tharoor pulls out of book launch in UK for travel policy

New Delhi, Sep 20 : Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday said that he has pulled out of a book launch function after the UK government changed rules for Indian travellers.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP in a tweet said, "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!"Tharoor shared a link that said, "UK government confirmed 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.

"Tharoors office in Delhi said that he is in Kerala and did not share his itinerary.Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh termed the UK travel policy bizarre.

In a tweet he said, "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.