Tharoor suggests cancelling Republic Day festivities as covid precaution
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Congress leader Shashi Tharoor (photo credit: PTI)
New Delhi: Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier pulled away from India's republic day celebrations over Covid 19 situation in UK.
Now Congress leader Shashi Tharoor suggests cancelling the festivities over what he said cheering crowds at the parade would be " Irresponsible".
Johnson, who was scheduled to be the chief guest, cancelled his visit to India this month after UK's growing health crisis from the new coronavirus variant .
"Now that @BorisJohnson's visit to India this month has been cancelled due to the COVID Second Wave, & we don't have a Chief Guest on Republic Day, why not go one step farther & cancel the festivities altogether?" Tharoor asked Twitter on Tuesday night. "Getting crowds to cheer the parade as usual would be irresponsible," he said.
As he talked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by phone, Johnson on Tuesday repeated gratitude to India's invitation for him as the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations.
He regretted his inability to make it to the celebrations.
Johnson talked to Modi a day after he had addressed the nation announcing a new stay-at-home lockdown in the UK.
PTI report with edits
