A day after minister confirmed that the 39 Indians were dead, their families can’t shake off the feeling that they were misled by the govt for 4 years.
New Delhi: A day after external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed to Parliament that 39 Indians ‘missing’ in Iraq for four years had been confirmed dead, the victims’ families have said the minister had continued to give them assurances without any inclination that there was something wrong.
Gurjit Singh, brother of Gurcharan Singh, told ThePrint that Swaraj used to swear in the name of Goddess Kali that the men were alive and well.
“Sushma Kali Mata ki sau khati thi, ‘main zinda lekar aaungi waapas’ (Sushma used to swear by Goddess Kali that she would bring them back alive),” Gurjit said.
Parwinder Lucky, brother of deceased Kanwaljit Singh, confirmed Gurjit’s version.
“We went to meet Sushma Swaraj 13 times. We were told that they are secure, and now, after four years, they released a small statement saying the men are dead. For four years, the government made fools of us,” Parwinder said.
Kanwaljit’s brother-in-law, Surinder Singh, added that the minister would show letters to prove that the men were working in a company. “‘They are working, they are constructing a jail, I have proof’ she would say,” said Surinder.
Jasbir Kaur, sister of deceased Ranjit Singh, said: “Saanu te sarkaar ne satt maar ditti, pehle hi das dete (the government has hurt us. They should’ve told us earlier).”
‘Grossly misled’
Parliament had to be adjourned soon after Swaraj’s speech, as she was criticised for misleading the families of the men and the nation as a whole. She countered these accusations by saying that she did not want to say anything until she had incontrovertible proof of the deaths.
“Till such time that I do not have any concrete evidence of them being dead, I will not declare them so. I will not pronounce them dead,” Swaraj said, reading out a statement she made in Parliament back in June 2017.
However, the families of the deceased haven’t been able to shake off the feeling that they were “grossly misled”. Out of 13 families ThePrint contacted, nine confirmed that they had visited Swaraj over 10 times in four years. Each of them said she had reassured them that the labourers were alive and that she was doing everything in her power to bring them back to India.
In fact, multiple times in Parliament too, Swaraj made statements confirming the well-being of the labourers.
“Till date we have no evidence if they are alive or dead. But due to the efforts we are putting in, we have been informed by many sources that they are still alive,” she had said on 22 February 2015.
However, the lone survivor of the kidnapping, Harjit Masih, claimed that the men had been shot dead as far back as 2014.