The Indian-origin Prime Minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar has been called a “typical Indian” by a British member of the House of Lords in response to the accusation of his failure to notify authorities during a trip to Northern Ireland.
Lord Kilclooney, a crossbench member of the House of Lords tweeted his comments in response to a BBC story headlined -'Varadkar accused of ‘poor manners’ after Mr Varadkar’s trip on Monday sparked criticism over his alleged failure to follow protocol.'
Lord Kilclonney’s "Typical Indian" remark sparked a racism row with some slamming it as “racist” and “embarrassing”.
But despite the accusations, he has declined to withdraw his tweet, maintaining that he is “no racist” and in fact, rather admired Indians.
A screenshot of Lord John Kilclooney's Twitter feed. Source: Twitter
“My point was that the PM had upset Unionists more than Irish PMs had!” He added: “I wanted to highlight that, unlike native Irish PMs, he had contravened the normal courtesies of visiting the UK and I certainly have succeeded. As one who works for Indians in the UK I am most definitely no racist — far from it — I admire them.”
“It is not racially abusive as he himself has confirmed he is half Indian,” he said in response to the criticism. That is great and not to be dismissed as the Indians are a great race. However he has damaged North/South relations by being continually offensive and provocative to the Unionist majority in NIreland,” he tweeted.
The reported that Lord Kilclooney had been at the centre of a racist controversy aimed at Mr Varadkar earlier as well.
In November last year, he described Mr Varadkar as “the Indian” in a tweet that was described as “racist”. He withdrew that tweet a few hours later.
But this time, there are calls for action against Lord Kilclooney over the latest tweet. Irish senator Niall O Donnghaile said he would ask the speaker of the Irish Senate to contact the Speaker of the House of Lords to urge for action because of "yet another offensive tweet".
Mr Varadkar said he had seen the latest tweet and initially thought it was from a parody account.
"I actually had thought that was a parody account but seemingly it's not - it actually is for real. And that's all I'll say about that," he told the Irish Parliament.
39-year-old Mr Varadkar, a doctor of Indian descent became Ireland’s Prime Minister in June last year after winning the leadership of the Fine Gael Party.
Before becoming the prime minister, he served as a minister in a minority government.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks in Montreal's 2017 Pride Parade along with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on August 20, 2017. Source: AAP
In January 2015 he identified himself as gay on his 36th birthday, after Ireland legalised same-sex marriage through a popular vote.
The son of a Mumbai doctor who moved to England and then Ireland, Mr Varadkar has pushed back attempts to define him by single-issues or identities.
“I'm not a half-Indian politician, or a doctor politician or a gay politician for that matter. It’s just part of who I am, it doesn't define me, it is part of my character I suppose," Mr Varadkar said during an interview at the time of his coming out.
