Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday took a ‘British Museum’ jibe while reacting to a report of a Mumbai traveller’s bike getting stolen in the United Kingdom.
While responding a post on social media referring to the theft, Tharoor suggested that “they are learning from the British museum.” The Congress MP was making the obvious reference to his Oxford Union speech where he referred to British museum’s vast collection of Indian artefacts, taken from the colonial times.
The witty exchange took place on social media platform X, where a user tagged Tharoor to the report of an influencer’s bike getting stolen in Nottingham. The X user wrote, “@ShashiTharoor sir, two words for this incident? 😂”.
In response to the post, Tharoor quipped, “They’re learning from the British Museum!”
In the famous 2015 Oxford Union speech, Tharoor launched a scathing attack on colonial loot and quipped, “No wonder the sun never set on the British Empire, because even God couldn’t trust the English in the dark.”
Tharoor, during his speech, highlighted the state of the Indian economy over the two centuries that Britain ruled India. “India’s share of the world economy when Britain arrived on its shores was 23%. By the time the British left it was down to below 4%. Why? Simply because India had been governed for the benefit of Britain,” he said.
Mumbai-based motorcyclist’s bike stolen in UK
Yogesh Alekari, a motorcyclist from India who had undertaken a round-the-world challenge, and had completed 15000 miles of the trip.
The 33-year-old Mumbai-based motorcyclist had a KTM 390 Adventure bike, which was stolen in Nottingham, along with almost all of his belongings, BBC reported. The bike was parked at Wollaton Park in Nottingham.
Alekari was also recording his journey throughout, and showcasing it to thousands of his followers on social media. He said that the incident was “painful” and had left him with a “broken heart”.
“I locked the bike up and it was a busy area with children playing so I thought it seemed like a safe place. I crossed the road and went to have breakfast but within an hour, I came back and everything was just gone,” BBC quoted Alekari as saying.
Alekari, who has more than 180,000 followers on Instagram, said the belongings stolen were worth more than £15,000, and included his MacBook, a spare mobile phone, two cameras, cash and other items.
