Senior Congress politician Shashi Tharoor hit back at the US TV anchor's claim that independent India has not built a single structure "as beautiful as the Bombay train station the British colonialists built” on Tuesday.
The claim was made by Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, who hosts the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” political talk show, as he was comparing the situation left behind by the US in Afghanistan to the British colonial rule in India.
"Strong countries dominate weak countries. This trend hasn't changed. At least the English took their colonial responsibility seriously. They didn't just take things, they added. When the US government withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years, we left behind airstrips, shipping containers and gun. When the British left India, they left behind an entire civilization, a language, a legal system, schools, churches, and public buildings, all of which are still in use today. Here's the train station the English built in Bombay," Carlson said.
However, his soliloquy did not sit well with the public, who dubbed his claims uneducated and racist.
Meanwhile, Tharoor expressed his anger on Twitter, saying, "I think Twitter ought to have an option for something to press when you can't respond without losing your cool. For now, I will content myself…".
Indian politicians and historians have often accused the former British imperial government of degrading the subcontinent from one of the richest regions on earth to one of the poorest during the 200 years of colonial occupation, which ended in 1947.
In 2015, Tharoor's Oxford University speech claimed that "Britain owes reparations to her former colonies" and that the UK's economy is financed by the "economic exploitation and deindustrialization of British India."
"So, all notions that the British were trying to do their colonial enterprise out of enlightened despotism to try and bring the benefits of colonialism and civilization to the benighted. Even I am sorry – Churchill's conduct in 1943 is simply one example of many that gave light to this myth," Tharoor said at Oxford, for which he received a standing ovation, he also won the union debate by getting 185 votes to 56.
Tharoor, a Congress parliamentarian, is well-known for his suave image and oratory and sarcastic speeches. He has also authored several books on the colonial era, including “An Era of Darkness” and “Inglorious Empire” to highlight the excesses of the British Empire.