Jaishankar-Jairam spat over oxygen shortage in embassies

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 2

An oxygen shortage may have affected even the diplomatic missions in Delhi with at least one making a public appeal for assistance, including to Youth Congress volunteers led by its president B V Srinivas.

In the case of another embassy, Srinivas backed up his claim with visuals of oxygen cylinder-laden trucks making their way into the compound on Saturday night.

Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar debunked the claim made by Srinivas while one foreign mission deleted its tweet and later put out a fresh post apologising for it.

MEA had checked with the Philippines embassy, said Jaishankar, and "this was an unsolicited supply as they had no Covid cases. Clearly for cheap publicity by you know who. Giving away cylinders like this when there are people in desperate need of oxygen is simply appalling.’’

Jaishankar was replying to a tweet by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh who thanked Youth Congress volunteers for their efforts and wondered if the MEA sleeping.

Jaishankar also told Ramesh, "Jairamji, MEA never sleeps; our people know across the world. MEA also never fakes; we know who does.’’ However, the visuals put out by Srinivas clearly show the embassy opening its gates to let in the trucks carrying oxygen cylinders.

In the second case relating to the New Zealand High Commission, the appeal to Srinivas for help was made through a Twitter post. It was deleted soon as soon as the Jaishankar-Jairam Ramesh Twitter spat over the Philippines embassy asking for oxygen gained ground.

Not wishing to wade into a political fight in India, the New Zealand High Commission deleted the tweet and put out another stating that it was trying all sources to arrange for oxygen cylinders urgently. "Our appeal has unfortunately been misinterpreted for which we are sorry," it clarified.

Reports have spoken of hectic activity inside one of the largest embassies here with ambulances and PPE kits, there was no visual back up unlike in the case of the Philippines Embassy or the deleted screenshot of the New Zealand High Commission.