Will champion the fight against racism, intolerance: Jaishankar on Oxford University racism row

New Delhi, Mar 15: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said India will take up with the UK when required the alleged incidents of racism in Britain.He also described India as the land of Mahatma Gandhi and said it can never turn its eyes away from racism.

"As land of Mahatma Gandhi, we can never ever turn our eyes away from racism. Particularly so when it is in a country where we have such a large diaspora. We've strong ties with UK. We'll take up such matters with great candour when required," he said.

"We will monitor these developments very very closely. We will raise it when required and we will always champion the fight against racism and other forms of intolerance," he added.

Rashmi Samant, who made Oxford University history as the first Indian woman to be elected President of the Oxford Student Union (SU), has resigned from the post just days later amid controversy surrounding some of her past remarks and references.

Some of Samant's old social media posts had emerged, which were branded as "racist" and "insensitive".

These included a holocaust reference on a post during a visit to the Berlin Holocaust Memorial in Germany in 2017 and an Instagram caption on a picture of herself in Malaysia that read "Ching Chang", which upset Chinese students.

The 22-year-old also attracted criticism for a campaign post caption that separated women and trans women, with the Oxford LGBTQ+ campaign calling for her resignation.

Samant, from Udupi in Karnataka, has since left for India to be with her family amid deep regret and many of her social media accounts have since been deleted.