Delhi’s Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal said that the country is fighting two wars against China — “one at border and another virus from China”.
“We have to remain united to fight both, none of these should be politicised,” he said, addressing the people, reported a news agency, Press Trust of India. “Our brave soldiers didn’t back down, even we won’t retreat until we win.”
On Monday, last week, at least twenty Indian army personnel were killed in the deadliest faceoff with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the nearly half a century. Indian army claimed that both sides suffered casualties, however, China didn’t confirm any.
Although, Mr. Kejriwal’s remark seems in line with the United States-run narrative of calling COVID-19 a “Chinese virus”. However, it was called out as a racist slur, promoting xenophobia. In the early stage of the breakout of COVID-19 in India, many racial slurs and harassment of citizens from north-east India were reported.