Lord Kilclooney, a former Cabinet minister in the Northern Ireland government, has come under severe criticism after he called the Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, a "typical Indian" on Twitter.
Kilclooney's tweet, simply saying ‘Typical Indian’, was a reply to a BBC news story in which a local MP had criticised Varadkar. The peer (member of British or Irish nobility) is not new to this controversy. In November 2017, he had drawn similar flak for referring to the Irish Prime Minister as "Indian".
However, the former senior Ulster unionist rejected that he was racist, and told the BBC that he didn't intend to withdraw his tweet.
Naomi Rachel Long, another Northern Ireland politician, castigated Kilclooney, saying his tweet was a "racial slur, insulting of not only the Taoiseach and the Irish people but of Indian people, too."
She also said that there was no explaining this tweet like he did the last time around. Naomi also urged the House of the Lords (HoL) to address Kilclooney's conduct, which, according to her, was "deliberate, calculated disrespect."
Kilclooney, after facing the heat for his contentious remark, tweeted in his own defence:
Varadkar, born to an Indian father and Irish mother, was elected the Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland in 2017.
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