The Shiv Sena joined the Opposition chorus in lambasting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre for allegedly ‘mishandling’ the evacuation of Indian students and citizens stranded in strife-torn Ukraine while remarking that the Centre would have to bear responsibility for the unfortunate death of an Indian student who was killed in Kharkiv on Tuesday.
An editorial in the Sena’s mouthpiece Saamna accused the BJP leaders of being more focused on holding roadshows in poll-bound States rather than acting early to mitigate the sufferings of students stranded in the Ukraine. It further accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of failing to take the views of the Opposition into consideration and of “politicising” the evacuation affair by deliberately naming it ‘Operation Ganga’ with an eye to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.
“At a time when the war clouds between Russia and Ukraine were already gathering, Prime Minister Modi, the Defence Minister [Rajnath Singh] and the Home Minister [Amit Shah] were busy campaigning for the BJP in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Manipur instead of trying to evacuate students as quickly as possible,” said the editorial.
The Sena— the BJP’s estranged former saffron ally in Maharashtra - rebuked the latter party by stating that poll campaigns ought to be fought by the party machinery only and not by the Prime Minister or the country’s Defence Minister, especially at a time when there was a possibility of a major global war erupting and Indian citizens were marooned in strife-torn zone.
“Regrettably, the BJP leadership was busy in roadshows and public rallies in poll-bound states… Had the BJP kept politics aside and taken views of all parties in this hour of crisis, it would certainly have helped mitigate the anger felt by the students stuck in the Ukraine. But who will tell them?” said the Sena.
Noting the travails faced by the students, the Sena accused the government of acting belatedly and sending four Ministers — Jyotiraditya Scindia (Civil Aviation), Hardeep Singh Puri (Petroleum and Natural gas), Kiren Rijiju (Law and Justice), and Gen. V.K. Singh (junior Aviation Minister) — as special envoys to Ukraine-bordering countries such as Romania, Moldavia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland only when the anger and frustration of the marooned students had reached breaking point.
“These students are stuck in bunkers, godowns and stranded in the bitter cold and snow with nothing to eat and their funds exhausted…according to disturbing videos made by some students, some of them have been beaten by Ukrainian troops on the Polish border,” said the editorial.
V.K. Singh’s statement criticised
The Sena further derided the statements made by Minister of State for Civil Aviation General V.K. Singh that the government would rescue every stranded Indian citizen, even if he or she was left on Mars.
“What about Kulbhushan Jadhav who is languishing in a Pakistani prison [on espionage charges]? Someone needs to ask him [Gen. Singh] this…students stranded on the Polish border have expressed their outrage against the Central government in videos that the Centre was not doing anything to get them out and that the U.S. government had already pulled out its citizens before the war started,” said the editorial.
It further said that Indian consulates were giving contradictory messages to the anxious students, at one time telling them to stay where they were and after a few hours, urging them to get out of Kyiv.
‘BJP giving political colour to every issue’
Lashing out at the Centre dubbing the evacuation as ‘Operation Ganga’, the Sena said that it was becoming a habit with the BJP to give political colour to every issue.
“Had there been elections in Bihar, Maharashtra or Gujarat, the BJP would have called it ‘Operation Nalanda’, or ‘Sahyadri’ or ‘Somnath’ perhaps. There seems to be no remedy to their [the BJP’s] politicisation of everything,” said the Sena.
It further observed that the BJP, which used to speak ill of Congress Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru till now, was walking on his path of not aligning with either of the warring parties.
The Sena’s ally in Maharashtra, the Congress, had on Tuesday demanded that the government convene an all-party meeting on Ukraine to appraise the parliamentarians about the situation.
