Congress leader Shashi Tharoor lashes out at US journalist claiming the British empire left civilisation in India

 Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Indian MP and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has responded to an American anchor over a pro-British rant, according to reports.

Tharoor, who posted on Twitter, was raging at Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, who announced on social media that India has not been able to build a single architecturally beautiful structure which can compete with the Victoria Terminus (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) built during the British Raj.

Carlson went on to praise the British saying that they left behind an entire civilization in India and took the step of abolishing Sati – a Hindu practice where a widow would set herself on fire alive by sitting atop her dead husband’s funeral pyre.

However, the journalist conveniently forgot to mention the huge role that Raja Ram Mohan played in abolishing the degrading practice.

In his post, Carlson wrote, “There’s nothing like that in Washington DC right now, much less in Kabul or Baghdad. Today India is far more powerful than UK, the nation that once ruled it. And after 75 years of independence, has that country produced a single building as beautiful as the Bombay train station that the British colonials built? No, sadly it has not. Not one.”

He proceeded to write, “The British empire was more than just genocide. In fact, the British did not commit genocide, except, arguably, against the Dutch during the Boer War. The British did leave the world the Magna Carta and Habeas Corpus and free speech. They helped end the Transatlantic slave trade as well as the ritual murder of widows in India.”

Tharoor, after coming across the post, responded to Carlson admitting that it made him very angry. He wrote, “I think @Twitter ought to have an option for something to press when you can’t respond without losing your cool.”

Many Twitter users also responded to the appalling comments made in favour of the British empire.

One user wrote, “Funny, when I travelled all over India, the most stunning buildings I saw weren’t built by the British but by Indians themselves!”

“That was before colonialism, when they could still afford to…”

The user went on to add, “Colonialism wrecked India, it didn’t build it. They’re only just starting to recover.”

Carlson claims that the US has only left airstrips, weapons and guns, but when the British left India, they left civilisation.

“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,” he said.