Jaishankar had earlier spoken to the British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, about the incident Jaishankar had earlier spoken to the British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, about the incident Jaishankar had earlier spoken to the British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, about the incident In March 2023, a man climbed the gates of the Indian High Commission in London and tried to pull down the Indian flag. The man was arrested by the British police and charged with criminal damage.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke about the incident on a podcast, The Ranveer Show. He said that he was "deeply bothered" by the incident and that it "got under his skin". He further added that he was "disappointed" that the British government had not provided adequate security for the Indian High Commission.
“I had actually landed from a plane, when I saw this man climbing up the Indian High Commission in London and was trying to pull down the flag… It got under my skin,” Jaishankar.
“When people try to score points… personal points I just shrug it. When ‘I’ gets pushed, and that I is not me, but 'India'… That sense that you are not given respect and people are condescending, some times ambush you…,” Jaishankar added.
Jaishankar had earlier spoken to the British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, about the incident and that he had "conveyed our strong disappointment". He said that he had also asked Truss to "ensure that adequate security is provided to our High Commission and other diplomatic missions in the UK".
“On the flag and the security of the high commission, in this particular case in the UK – whenever any country sends an embassy anywhere abroad, it is the obligation of the receiving country to provide security for a diplomat to do his work. It is the obligation of the receiving country to ensure the embassy or the high commission or the consulate and their premises are respected. These obligations were not met,” Jaishankar said at an event organised by Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya.
Incidentally, Avtar Singh Purba alias Khanda, a prominent pro-Khalistani activist who was involved in the attack on the Indian High Commission in London, later died at a hospital in the city of Birmingham, a UK-based Sikh organisation said in a statement.
Sikh Federation UK, which has styled itself as one of the largest Sikh organisations based in the UK, said Avtar Singh was terminally ill with blood cancer. He was on a life support system for the last few days.