The government should share its evacuation plans with those stranded in Ukraine and their families as India could not abandon its own people, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said on Monday.
Several other Congress leaders, including Shashi Tharoor and Randeep Surjewala, took to Twitter to raise the hardships faced by Indian students and appealed to the government to expedite the evacuation process.
Students roughed up
“My heart goes out to the Indian students suffering such violence and their family watching these videos. No parent should go through this. The GOI must urgently share the detailed evacuation plan with those stranded as well as their families. We can’t abandon our own people,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted while sharing a video of some students being roughed up by security personnel at the Ukraine-Poland border.
In another tweet, Mr. Gandhi shared a video of a medical student in which she claims that Indian embassy officials in Kyiv were cutting their phone calls. “Conditions of Indians stranded in Ukraine are worsening. Yet, GOI is not taking effective steps to bring them home. As usual, PM is MIA”.
The official Twitter handle of the Congress said, “These sticks on foreign land are falling not on the children of our country but on the honour and prestige of the country, Pradhan Mantri ji. Leave elections, remove the stress of the children of the country, Pradhan Mantri ji”.
‘Lack of foresight’
Sharing the video shared by Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Tharoor questioned India’s strategy and “lack of foresight”. “Due to wrong strategy and lack of foresight, thousands of our children are trapped in Ukraine. Things are getting worse and time is running out. Protecting Indian citizens and their lives should be our first duty,” he said.
“Modi ji, You will turn your face even after seeing such atrocities on our Indian children? Will Indians trying to save their lives from bombs and missiles be subjected to such cruelty? Instead of giving advise, is there any plan to bring back thousands of Indians safely from Ukraine? Will you stop electioneering and discharging your duties? #UkraineRussiaWar,” party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala stated in a tweet.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, spokesperson Ragini Nayak claimed that thousands of Indian students were stuck in the war zone, in bunkers, without food, water and medical attention.
“We saw a video last night on the Ukraine-Poland border where students are being beaten up. What is it if not a matter of shame for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government that they have decided to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to this entire terrible situation. Modi ji was so busy in electioneering that his government did not consider it necessary to issue an advisory in advance to students in Ukraine, as had been done by other countries like the United States,” Ms. Nayak said.
