The Qatar court on February 12 released all eight former Indian Navy personnel in its custody, out of which seven have returned to India. The eight Indian nationals working for the Dahra Global company were imprisoned in Qatar since October 2022 after being accused of allegedly spying on a submarine programme. They were deemed guilty of espionage by the Qatari court, and were sentenced to death on charges not yet made public. Later, the capital punishment for the jailed Indian Navy veterans was commuted to an extended prison term after diplomatic talks between Qatar and India.
Undoubtedly, the release of eight Indian Navy veterans by Qatar could be possible only as a result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diplomatic efforts. Definitely, a lot of hard work and diplomatic efforts made by Modi and his team of diplomats in Delhi resulted in the safe return of the Navy veterans from Qatar. Modi’s meeting with Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad on December 1 last year in Dubai helped achieve the release of these officials, nearly 18 months after they were arrested in an alleged case of espionage.
The welcome development shows the Modi government’s determined focus on rescuing Indian citizens who are stranded either abroad or on domestic soil. The government under his leadership has always ensured that Indians facing troubles anywhere in the world or in any part of the country are not abandoned. They should not be left in the lurch. Rather, they should be extended a helping hand by the government even in the toughest times. There are several shining examples when the government reached out to Indians in times of crisis even if they were thousands of miles away from home.
The rescue missions that have been carried out so far by the Modi government to evacuate Indian citizens from embattled, natural calamity-hit, or any crisis-ridden region have been successful. Not only Indians, but foreigners were also rescued by such Indian evacuation missions. While focusing on grueling rescue missions abroad, Prime Minister Modi never ignored Indian citizens who were stranded on domestic soil, be they poor or rich. It also served a message that the top leadership of the country takes safety of the lives of its citizens as priority, no matter where they live.
The Modi government exemplified its care for citizens through a series of remarkable and tough evacuation operations. India’s rescue operations to bring back Indian nationals from war-torn Israel and Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and also during the Covid pandemic were carried out with precision and skill in coordination with various agencies. Besides the relentless pursuit of safety and security of Indian nationals stranded in war-ravaged zones in different parts of the world, the names that the government gave to each of its missions are unique and interesting as they were related to the nation and its culture.
