Amid the spread of the Omicron virus which is one of the variants of the Wuhan virus, China has hired an army of western social media influencers who have hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok, Instagram, or Twitch to spread positive stories about China as it hosts the Winter Olympics.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is under a lot of pressure as there is an international backlash against the Beijing Games as many Western countries have announced diplomatic boycotts, and this has prompted Xi Jinping to hire western PR professionals to spread an alternative narrative through social media.

Last month, President Joe Biden announced his administration would stage a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics, and several US allies, including the UK and Australia, joined to show solidarity with the Uyghur Muslims who are under constant threat by the  Chinese government and many are languishing in concentration camps.

According to Open Secrets, an organisation based in Washington DC that tracks money in American politics, for more than a decade, China has been spending a lot of money overseas messaging efforts through state-sponsored media outlets.

It is estimated that China spent nearly $60 million in the US in 2020 and the funding included money for the state broadcaster CCTV’s US branch and the China Daily newspaper.

Some of the fortune 500 companies like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Intel, and other companies like Airbnb and Visa, are among the 13 top partners of the forthcoming Games. Other sponsors include Japanese carmaker Toyota, German financial services firm Allianz, and French information technology consultancy Atos.

In November, human rights organisations accused western companies who are sponsors of such events “squandering the opportunity” to pressure China to address its “appalling human rights record”.

“Businesses need to know that under the UN guiding principles on business and human rights, they have a responsibility to identity and mitigate human rights risks, and that helping [the] Chinese government’s reputation laundering is risking being complicit in those abuses,” said Wang Yaqiu, a senior researcher on China at Human Rights Watch.

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Amid the spread of the Omicron variant of the Wuhan virus, the Chinese Communist Party has warned foreign athletes that they could potentially face punishment if they use free speech that is “against the Olympic spirit” or local laws.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is just two weeks away and Yang Shu, deputy director-general of international relations for the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOC) said, “Any behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment,”.

According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) charter prohibits any kind of “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” in any Olympic sites, venues, or other areas.

On Tuesday night (January 18), a forum hosted by Human Rights Watch warned athletes about conducting any activism, including making statements, while in Beijing for the Games, and to be very careful with regards to the extraordinary reach of one-party authoritarian state Chinese surveillance.

The human rights forum also made it clear to all the participating athletes that if they are caught demostrating any political or religious activism, do not to expect the IOC to protect them from the Chinese authorities.

“Chinese laws are very vague on the crimes that can be used to prosecute people’s free speech,” she said. “People can be charged with picking quarrels or provoking trouble. There are all kinds of crimes that can be levelled at peaceful, critical comments. And in China the conviction rate is 99%.” Dr. Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, said.

Also, according to a report published in DW.com, Citizen Lab, a Canadian cybersecurity group has raised serious concerns over health-tracking smartphone app that Olympic attendees must download because the lab has established beyond a reason of doubt that it has security flaws in the app, including a list of political keywords and a feature to report “politically sensitive content.”

Ai Weiwei, who is regarded as one of the world’s greatest living artists and had helped design the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics’ Bird’s Nest Stadium, who now lives in in exile said, “Beijing Winter Olympics will allow China to use the Games to show the world a fake smile,”.

#TheAPInterview: Ai Weiwei, one of China's most famous artists who helped design the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics' Bird's Nest Stadium, says in exile that the Beijing Winter Olympics will allow China to use the Games to show the world “a fake smile.” https://t.co/k2lP0Q44px

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 18, 2022

“As an architect, my goal was the same as other architects, that is, to design it as perfectly as possible,” Ai told The Associated Press in an interview over email. “The way it was used afterwards went in the opposite direction from our ideals. We had hoped that our architecture could be a symbol of freedom and openness and represent optimism and a positive force, which was very different from how it was used as a promotional tool in the end.”

“Since 2008, the government of China has further strengthened its control, and the human rights situation has further deteriorated,” Ai told AP.

“China has seen the West’s hypocrisy and inaction when it comes to issues of human rights, so they have become even bolder, more unscrupulous and more ruthless. In 2022, China will impose more stringent constraints to the internet and political life,” including human rights and the press, he said.

“China, under the system of state capitalism and especially after COVID, firmly believes that its administrative control is the only effective method; this enhances their belief in authoritarianism. Meanwhile, China thinks that the West, with its ideas of democracy and freedom, can hardly obtain effective control. So, the 2022 Olympics will further testify to the effectiveness of authoritarianism in China and the frustration of the West’s democratic regimes.”

Meanwhile, Germany, Australia, the UK, and the US have asked their athletes and National Olympic Committee members to leave their personal phones and laptops behind and to travel with special devices because of potential digital espionage.

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As China is on the cusp of hosting the controversial 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, videos have now emerged wherein one can see people being hauled up and sent to concentration camps which the Communist state claims as quarantine camps in the Jinnan District in Tianjin province to prevent the spread of the Omicron virus, which is one of the variants of the Wuhan virus. 

Defend #BeijingOlympics! Everyone in a community in Jinnan District in #Tianjin taken to quarantine camps. #Tianjin is 60 miles away from #Beijing.
天津津南区小区都被拉去集中营隔离。 pic.twitter.com/BAmT06YF2d

— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferzeng97) January 16, 2022

Tianjin is only 60 miles or just over 100 kilometers from the capital city of Beijing and is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China and people in this city are forced by the Communist government to move into quarantine camps in order to prevent the mutated version of the Wuhan virus.

Watch this show. One positive case found, the entire building taken away. This is called “Community of a Shared Future”(命運共同體）. (This is the official translation. I would translate it as "Community of a Shared Destiny". https://t.co/2PLKIOwqPc

— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferzeng97) January 16, 2022

For China, hosting the 2022 winter Olympics is a matter of pride, and also for President Xi Jinping if the event gets postponed, it will be a huge loss of face as he tries to become the leader of the red state for life.

Already, many countries including the United States have diplomatically announced the boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over the human rights violations by China in the mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang where hundreds of thousands of Muslim men and women have been kept in re-education camps.

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There is good news in the fight against the Wuhan virus as a new study has claimed that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) developed the 2-DG drug is effective against all variants of Covid-19 and even reduces the multiplicity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, reports The Hindustan Times.

The preliminary study also showed that DRDO’s anti-Covid drug alleviates cells from infection-induced cytopathic effect (CPE) and cell death, according to its abstract reviewed by news agency ANI.

DRDO’s Covid-19 drug, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), was released at a crucial time by Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Dr Harsh Vardhan on May 17, wherein the central government claimed that the drug has the potential to reduce a patient’s average recovery time by two and a half days and oxygen demand by up to 40%.

That is why authorisation was given for emergency use by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on June 1 as an adjunct therapy for moderate to severe coronavirus patients.

The new study assessing the viability of DRDO’s anti-Covid drug was conducted by Abhishek Kumar, Dhiviya Vedagiri, Annat Narayan Bhatt, Yogesh Rai, and others. It has not been peer-reviewed yet, ANI noted.

DRDO’s anti-Covid drug according to the government will be priced at ₹900 per sachet in the market, and this drug is manufactured by the Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL).

However, the central government has said that it will also provide the drug at discounted prices to the central and state governments.

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A British and a Norwegian scientist have claimed that Chinese scientists experimented on the novel coronavirus in the Wuhan lab and that they have detected ‘unique fingerprints’ in coronavirus samples which point to manipulation in the laboratory.

This claim has been made by British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr Birger Sørensen. From their research they say that Chinese scientists inside the Wuhan lab were “altering” the naturally occurring viruses to make them more virulent then test their potential effects on humans.

According to them, the Chinese scientists covered their tracks via “retro-engineering” of the virus versions, to make it appear it evolved from an animal.

This explosive revelation will be on the soon-to-be-released report published in the scientific journal Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery (QRB) discovery. This report has been obtained by The Mail. 

The scientists claimed that they have had “prima facie evidence of retro-engineering in China” largely ignored by academics and major journals for over a year due to the significant clout China has over many international organisations and businesses. It is “beyond reasonable doubt” that SARS-CoV-2 was created through “laboratory manipulation,” they said.

These two European scientists claim Wuhan lab scientists were splicing the natural coronavirus ‘backbone’ found in Chinese cave bats onto a new ‘spike’. 

Professor Angus Dalgleish of Oncology at St George’s University, London made the breakthrough in creating the first-ever working “HIV vaccine”, while scientist Sørensen is a virologist and Chair of a pharmaceutical company, Immunor, which has recently developed a coronavirus vaccine candidate called BIOVACC-19. 

A former MI6 British spy chief Sir Richard Dearlove had earlier said, “I subscribe to the theory that it’s an engineered escapee from the Wuhan Institute (of Virology),” Richard, who served as head of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, between 1999 and 2004 for the first time said on Live TV, shocking the world. “I am not saying anything other than it was the result of an accident and that the virus is the consequence of “gain-of-function experiments” that were being conducted in Wuhan, which I don’t think are particularly sinister,”.

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On Friday (May 21), Coimbatore saw 3243 new cases of Wuhan virus getting reported, next only to Chennai which saw 5913 new infections.  The district stands second with 29345 active cases while Chennai tops the list with 48782 active cases.

On the other hand, the district fares extremely poor in terms of vaccination. Only 172 doses were administered on Friday. From May 15 to May 21, a total of just 4714 doses were administered in the entire district. In the same period, 22453 cases of Wuhan virus were reported.

It is not that the state does not have any vaccines with it. As of May 18, Tamil Nadu had a total of 13,63,494 doses of vaccines in its kitty. It had received 9,62,000 doses on May 16 from the Union Government.

In light of this, leaders from opposition parties and the people have alleged that the DMK is discriminating Kongu region in vaccination.

Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan said that the western belt is being neglected with regards to vaccination. She said that there has been negligible vaccination in the district for the past two days. She has urged the Health Minister to take action immediately.

Do read this thread to understand how the western belt has been neglected with regards to vaccines. https://t.co/5ueCcjkfSK

— Vanathi Srinivasan (@VanathiBJP) May 21, 2021

BJP MLA candidate from Ooty expressed strong condemnation towards the DMK government for discriminating the people of Nilgiris and Coimbatore. He said that in Coonoor, no vaccines are being administered for the past three days. “Everyday I’m following up with GH personnel and they give me the same response that no vaccines have been supplied. Extremely poor distribution plan by the state.”, Bhojaran said.

@SuryahSG I can confirm that in Coonoor, no vaccines are being administered for the past three days, everyday I'm following up with GH personnel and they give me the same response that no vaccines have been supplied. Extremely poor distribution plan by the state. @BJP4TheNilgiris

— BJP Bhojarajan for Ooty (@Bhojarajan4Ooty) May 21, 2021

Prof. P. Kanagasabapathi, the State Vice President of BJP Tamil Nadu has said that despite repeated appeals, there has been no respite for Coimbatore people and that there has been no vaccination since yesterday (May 20). He has written a letter to Chief Minister MK Stalin to intervene and address the issue at the earliest. In his letter he stated that the COVID positivity rate of Coimbatore is higher than that of Chennai and that hospitals are turning away thousands of people wanting to get vaccinated citing they don’t have vaccine stock. He has asked the Chief Minister to allocate sufficient vaccines to the district.

AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan  said that there is no logic or mathematical model that is being followed by the present Tamim Nadu government. “They are just randomly distributing the vaccines in an arbitrary manner”, he said.

“Just because they got wiped out in the region, it seems that the DMK is purposefully not rolling out beneficial schemes for the public of the region as they don’t want the MLAs of the region to take the credit.” Kovai Sathyan said.

BJP Spokesperson SG Suryah lashed out Stalin-led government and called it a cruel, blatant injustice and discrimination being meted out to the people of Coimbatore. “I don’t know if it is sheer incompetence and mis-governance of the present state government or whether they are doing it purposefully as they got wiped out in all 10 constituencies of Coimbatore. A government has to be a government for all. Are Coimbatore people not Tamilians?”, Suryah said speaking to The Commune.

#Coonoor has a #DMK MLA & he’s a Cabinet Minister. Yet, this is what Western Tamil Nadu is subjected to.

Only a Sadist Chief Minister like #MKStalin can botch up entire vaccine supply process probably for political scores. Or is it absolute failure in governance? #SadistStalin https://t.co/PDm1xexJNX

— Dr.SG Suryah (@SuryahSG) May 21, 2021

BJP Tamil Nadu Vice President K. Annamalai also questioned the government over the poor vaccination roll out for Coimbatore. He said that vaccination in the Kongu belt has been on the decline since May 10.

“Total vaccination done in the state on May 19 was 36,199. Total Vaccination in the 5 districts of western region (Coimbatore, Erode, Nilgiris, Salem, and Tirupur) is just 2244. This is just 6% of the total vaccination done for the state on that day. It clearly shows that the region is being neglected.”, he said.

“Is this political pay back for not electing DMK representatives here? Or is it sheer political and administrative mis-management?”, Annamalai asked.

It is to be noted that Tamil Nadu is dealing with a dual problem of vaccine wastage and vaccine hesitancy. Thanks to Tamil news channels, irresponsible politicians like VCK chief Thol. Thirumavalavan and self-proclaimed experts on everything under the sun like Sumanth C Raman, vaccine hesitancy has been high in the state after they raised questions about the safety of vaccines following Actor Vivekh’s death. While Actor Vivekh died of heart attack, the rhetoric peddled had led to unwarranted fears among common people. It needs to be mentioned that the same people who spread fear have got themselves vaccinated.

On top of this, netizens and leaders allege that political preferences of people seem to be having a role in the vaccine distribution by the DMK government. The hashtag #DontBoycottCoimbatore is trending on Twitter.

New cases :-
Chennai – 5,913
Coimbatore – 3,243

Vaccination :-
Chennai – 12,526
Coimbatore – 172 pic.twitter.com/2HvqjS06rE

— Arun Ramesh (@arun10venkat) May 21, 2021

Pathetic state of administration by @mkstalin in the #KonguNadu #Coimbatore region., is it intensionally done as a revenge against the #Kongu ppl for not voting @arivalayam & neglecting #DMK unanimously? Either #DontBoycottCoimbatore or separate us as a new state #KonguNadu https://t.co/vYj4yC8Vn0 pic.twitter.com/m3WTzosqVw

— Pulikeshi 𑀧𑀼𑀮𑀺𑀓𑁂𑀘𑀺 (@iampulikeshi) May 22, 2021

https://twitter.com/PraneshRangan/status/1395764032838070282

#DontBycottCoimbatore
தமிழகத்தில் இன்று அதிகம் பாதிக்கப்பட்ட மாவட்டங்களுடன் ஒப்பிடுகையில் தெளிவாக தெரிகிறது திமுக அரசு கோயமுத்தூர் மாவட்டத்தை வஞ்சிக்கிறது என்று !!@annamalai_k @pkspathi @VanathiBJP @sansbarrier
@Master_Sangi @SanghiPrince @vetivelveeravel @karthik_nmkl pic.twitter.com/AD7TYuXVUG

— Nationalism (@nationalism23) May 21, 2021

திமுக சரவணன் மோடி கிட்ட கேளுங்கனு சொல்றார்.. மோடி அரசு மாநிலத்துக்கு தான் கொடுக்கும் அப்போ கொங்கு மாநிலம் உருவாக்கிடலாமா!

13 லட்சம் தடுப்பூசி கையிருப்பு இருந்தும் ஒரு நாளைக்கு ஒருலட்சம் ஊசி கூட போடமுடியாத செயலற்ற திமுக அரசு#DontBoycottCoimbatore pic.twitter.com/Ylh0SGIwtX

— Fervid Indian (@FervidIndian) May 22, 2021

#DontBoycottCoimbatore

No revenge politics plz MKS.

Don't put Tamil ppl in trouble simply cause DMK lost there. #DontBoycottCoimbatore

— Indu Makkal Katchi (off) (@Indumakalktchi) May 21, 2021

https://twitter.com/Jeyankumari/status/1395788490609025034

#DontBoycottCoimbatore

தொடர்ந்து 3 வாரமாக கோவையில் பொருந்தொற்று வேகமாக பரவி வரும் நிலையில் கையில் இருக்கும் பேராயுதமான தடுப்பூசியை வழங்காமல் கோவைக்கு சுற்றுபயணம் மட்டும் ஏன் ?

மக்கள் இறப்பதை வேடிக்கை பார்க்கவா ? https://t.co/GIfif7SuiU

— Selva Kumar (@Selvakumar_IN) May 22, 2021

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As India is fighting the Wuhan Virus together, screenshots of what is being alleged as a “toolkit” of the Congress party were exposed by various BJP leaders on Tuesday (18 May).

The Congress party led by the Gandhi family according to this toolkit has adopted various underhanded techniques to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP led central government during a time of great difficultly.

The document titled ‘Cornering Narendra Modi & Covid Mismanagement’ begins by highlighting how the ‘Kumbh mela’ is to be used to malign the Hindu festival while calling Eid as a ‘happy gathering’.  The “toolkit” suggests politicizing the congregation by repeatedly labeling it as a ‘super spreader’.

The toolkit created alleged by the AICC states “Use the phrase Indian Strain whenever talking of new mutant. Social Media volunteers can call it Modi Strain,“.

It also gives instructions to ‘dismantle the image of Modi’ by ‘targeting Gujarat’ and by using ‘dramatic pictures of dead bodies and cremation’.   

It also says how international media can be used to attack PM Modi and also using ‘liberal intellectuals’ to attack PM CARES’.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has attributed this “toolkit” to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Research Department.

However, Congress has denied any involvement and has called the “toolkit” dated May 2021 a “forgery”. It has said that it will file FIRs against BJP president J P Nadda and spokesperson Sambit Patra.

The Chairman of the AICC Research Department Rajeev Gowda called the “toolkit” is fake and in a tweet said, “BJP is propagating a fake “toolkit” on “COVID-19 mismanagement” and attributing it to AICC Research Department. We are filing an FIR for forgery against J P Nadda and Sambit Patra. When our country is devastated by COVID, instead of providing relief, BJP shamelessly concocts forgeries,”.

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra in a tweet said, “Disgusting to say the least ..Rahul Gandhi wanting to use this opportunity of Pandemic to destroy the image of PM Modi. Congress workers instructed to call the mutant strain as “Modi strain” No stone left unturned to scar the name of India with the help of Foreign Journalists!!”.

Disgusting to say the least ..Rahul Gandhi wanting to use this opportunity of Pandemic to destroy the image of PM Modi.
Congress workers instructed to call the mutant strain as “Modi strain”
No stone left unturned to scar the name of India with the help of Foreign Journalists!! pic.twitter.com/i1ykMB00MA

— Sambit Patra (@sambitswaraj) May 18, 2021

When country was in the midst of a health crisis & every single unit of society from an individual to administration were rising up to the challenge , here was @INCIndia spreading fake , negative news & stirring up discontent . Disgusting . #CongressToolkitExposed pic.twitter.com/L5OWbIAvHN

— B L Santhosh (@blsanthosh) May 18, 2021

The toolkit has the Congress symbol (watermark) on the top right corner of each shared page, and has instruction to use dramatic photographs of funerals and dead bodies as made famous by left journalist Barkha Dutt and Rana Ayub and says that such journalists can be facilitated by the local Congress cadre.

One of the screenshots shared by Patra states that it is important to work with “friendly journalists” to malign the BJP on social media and all effort must be made to amplify requests for Covid related help and response should only be made if the Indian Youth Congress’ handle is tagged.

The toolkit also contains instructions for journalists and social media influencers who should give top priority.

Also, on crosshairs in this toolkit is the systematic criticism of the Central Vista Project which incidentally the Congress party had proposed in 2012.

The term “toolkit” became famous after environmental activists Greta Thunberg on social media released a set of instructions on how to agitate and protests against the government during the height of the farmer’s protests which many experts believe led to the second wave of the Wuhan virus in Delhi and other parts of India. 

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As the number of Covid positive cases and recovery rate run parallel in India, Japan is now bracing against more infectious variants of the Wuhan virus which many experts are calling the fourth wave. This has now overwhelmed hospital resources in the Asian country with the healthcare system on the verge of collapse.

Also, the hope of holding the  Olympic Games in just over 10 weeks now looks very bleak, as the vaccination campaign struggles to build up steam.

Yasutoshi Kido, a professor at Osaka City University’s Graduate School of Medicine, said, “Compared to the number of infections, the number of beds for severe cases is very limited in Japan,”.

According to Kido, hospitals in Osaka are so overwhelmed that they are turning away cancer and heart disease patients as the number of Covid-19 cases has risen up and medical resources had “almost collapsed”.

Osaka’s governor, Hirofumi Yoshimura, has asked the medical association to arrange visits to housebound patients as the number of deaths at home has risen amid the shortage of hospital beds.

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 As the nation is reeling under the second wave of the Wuhan virus, the Defence Ministry on Sunday (9 May) issued an order to the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) to recruit 400 retired medical officers of the Army Medical Corps (AMC), reports Time of India.

These doctors will be recruited into the AFMS under the Short Service Commission (SSC) for a maximum of 11 months contract.

Indian hospitals in several states are running short of health workers, vaccines, oxygen, drugs and beds.

The Defence Ministry’s statement noted: “Under the ‘Tour of Duty’ scheme, 400 ex-AMC/SSC medical officers, released between 2017 and 2021, are expected to be recruited on contract basis for a maximum period of 11 months.”
These medical officers will be paid a fixed monthly lump sum amount, which will be calculated by deducting the basic pension from the salary drawn at the time of retirement, it said.

The Defence Ministry further added, “The amount would remain unchanged for the term of the contract and no other allowances would be paid. The medical officers to be recruited are required to be medically fit as per civilian standards,”.

The AFMS has already been at the forefront and has deployed additional doctors, including specialists, super specialists and paramedics, at various hospitals as the government has granted them an extension till December 31, to augment the strength by 238 more doctors.

India recorded 4,03,738 fresh Covid-19 cases in a day, which pushed the tally to 2,22,96,414, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Sunday.

The death toll from the pandemic climbed to 2,42,362 with 4,092 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

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Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Friday (7 May) made a sophomoric remark against External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar by referring to him as a ‘waiter’ and without any proof claiming he was being quarantined in London due to Covid-19 and could not return to the country.

Swamy, who has a history of being unhinged made the remark when Minister Jaishankar was in the United Kingdom on an official visit to attend the crucial G-7 (Group of 7 countries) meeting.

He said that Jaishankar dressed like a ‘waiter’ has been placed in quarantine in London and cannot return home. He then went on to challenge to refute his allegations if they were not true. “If not true, refute it please.”, he added. 

I learn that India's External Affairs Minister Shri Jaishankar dressed like a Waiter has been placed in Quarantine in London and cannot return home yet !! If not true, refute it please.

— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) May 7, 2021

However, a day later, Minister Jaishankar clarified to the media that positive tests were a false alarm and said all the team members were back in the country.

On Friday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar returned to the country from London, where he had self-isolated following reports that some diplomats from the team accompanying him had exposed to Covid-19.

Sensing the possibility of getting infected Jaishankar had acknowledged that he was made aware of exposure to possible Covid cases and that led to the conduct of these important engagements in the virtual mode as a precautionary measure.

Subramanian Swamy has a history of attacking individuals at a personal level with his customised comments, however, this time several netizens took to Twitter and attacked Swamy as India’s top diplomat is working with other nations to fight this deadly Wuhan pandemic.

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