On Wednesday, the Centre claimed how the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal “Doesn’t Speak for India”, after Singapore objected to Kejriwal’s opinions on the new Singapore strain of the COVID-19. The Centre also claimed that the Delhi CM has, “no competence to pronounce on COVID-19 variants or civil aviation policy”. This development comes in the wake of Kejriwal’s urge to the Indian govt to halt all fights from and to Singapore.

Background

On Tuesday, May 18, the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said how a new variant of the COVID-19 found in Singapore can be the reason for the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic in India. Kejriwal also asked the Centre to stop all the air travel with Singapore. Hours after his statement, Singapore issued a hard-worded rebuttal saying the country is only showing B.1.617.2 variant in the infections.

Details

On May 19, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar said how the Delhi CM doesn’t speak for the nation and how, “irresponsible comments from those who should know better can damage long-standing partnerships”.

The External Affairs minister also fired another tweet in which he appreciated the efforts made by Singapore to support India in its fight against COVID-19 saying,

“Singapore and India have been solid partners in the fight against Covid-19. Appreciate Singapore’s role as a logistics hub and oxygen supplier. Their gesture of deploying military aircraft to help us speaks of our exceptional relationship.”

Earlier in the day, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi also took to Twitter and wrote-

“Singapore Government called in our High Commissioner today to convey strong objection to Delhi CM’s tweet on “Singapore variant”. The High Commissioner clarified that the Delhi CM had no competence to pronounce on COVID-19 variants or civil aviation policy.”

Meanwhile, Delhi’s Deputy CM Manish Sisodia slammed Centre’s hard worded remarks and alleged that the BJP-ruled Centre is doing ‘cheap politics’. The Aam Aadmi Party leader was quoted by Press Trust of India saying-

“Centre is worried about its image in Singapore but not about children under threat from COVID-19 strain. It did not consider alerts about COVID London strain and many lost their family members due to it.”

It all started when Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday took to Twitter and claimed how a new COVID-19 strain found in Singapore could be the reason the country may face the third wave of the virus. In his tweet, Kejriwal also asked the Indian government to stop all the air services to and from Singapore.

Kejriwal’s tweet said-

“A new variant of coronavirus found in Singapore is being said to be very dangerous for children. This can usher in the third wave (of COVID-19) in India. I appeal to the Central government to immediately halt air services with Singapore, and work on developing a vaccine for children on a priority basis.”

Before the virologists and epidemiologists could weigh in the matter, Singapore authorities brushed off the claim by Kejriwal and said that it was in-fact the Indian strain of the COVID-19 that is identified in most cases in Singapore.

The hard-worded tweet by the Singapore High Commission in India read, “There is no truth in the assertion that there is a new COVID strain in Singapore. Phylogenetic testing has shown that the B.1.617.2 variant is the prevalent strain in many of the COVID cases, including in children, in recent weeks in Singapore.”

Meanwhile, less than complete day after the development, the Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said how, “Politicians should stick to facts. There is no ‘Singapore variant'”.