A Day of National Relief for India on Rare Diplomatic Feat at Doha

         With the release of  8 Indian Navy veterans by Qatar, Indians across the world have been bestowed with a day of Rare National Pride and Rejoicing.  It is a great relief for their families, who were living in a scare as their kins’ lives were in the death row since August 2022, having  been convicted by Doha’s military court citing espionage charges. There were also reports afloat that some erstwhile Pakistan Army brass had played dirty politics on the issue and prompted Qatarian authorities against senior and retired Indian Navy Officers.

Government of India needs to be patted for their diplomatic efforts due to which the death sentence of the former marines was commuted to life imprisonment and now they have been released and seen of them have since returned to India safely.
Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal, and Sailor Ragesh were arrested in August 2022 and had been in jail since.

On 26 October 2023, the Qatari court sentenced all eight Indian Navy veterans to death. It may be recalled that at the COP28 summit, Prime Minister Modi met Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and discussed the issue.
Thereafter the capital punishment was commuted in December 2023. The Navy veterans, now back in the country, thanked PM Modi and the government for securing their release. “We are very happy that we are back in India, safely. Definitely, we would like to thank PM Modi as this was only possible because of his personal intervention,” said one of them. It is a great achievement for Indian diplomacy by Modi government and especially External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s efforts to pull all strings in favour of our citizens in distress.
This is not the first time that India has brought its citizens back home safely from a foreign land in times of crisis. India has always given top priority to the safety of life of each and every one of its citizens.
The Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership has taken swift and decisive action, harnessing all possible diplomatic and military skills of India, to rescue and bring home Indian nationals from impossible situations.
Prime Minister’s personal equation with a number of important world leaders and India’s growing international stature have been instrumental in safe home coming of thousands of Indians from conflict zones.

(Editorial-Subhash C Vatsain)