As Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced Rs 10 lakh compensation for the families of 39 Iraq victims, Punjab Congress claimed credit for it saying that the Centre announced financial help bowing to the pressure of Congress MPs who staged a protest on the roof of the Parliament building.
At the same time, the Congress also demanded the Union Minister of State for External Affairs General VK Singh’s apology for his statement in Amritsar, a day before, that compensating Iraq victims’ families “is not like distributing biscuits”.
Congress MPs from Punjab including state party chief Congress Sunil Jakhar, Ravneet Singh Bittu, and Chaudhary Santokh Singh, from where 27 Iraq victims hailed, protested on the terrace of the Parliament building on Tuesday morning to demand compensation for the families of Indians killed by ISIS in Iraq's Mosul.
Notably, the mortal remains of 38 of the 39 Indians killed in Iraq, arrived at the Amritsar International Airport on Monday, where VK Singh handed over the bodies to their relatives.
“The Parliament has been constituted in Indian Constitution so that the people’s agony and their issues can be highlighted here to find positive solutions. The Modi Government has closed it down and turned it into Hyde Park wherein anyone can pose a protest but cannot make positive discussions,” said Jakhar adding that it was due to this that he and his party was forced to stage a protest to make the Union Government wake up from its slumber.
Jakhar said that the people killed in Iraq were from different states of the country. “It is thus the duty of the Central Government to help its people in distress,” he said pointing that the Congress-led Punjab Government has announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for each and every victim’s family.
He said that had the Indian Embassy helped these victims of Iraq tragedy in time, the precious lives could have been saved. “But the Modi government left these poor people to fend for themselves,” he alleged.
At the same time, the party criticised the Prime Minister for the “meagre relief”. “Rs 10 lakhs announced by Modi is too little and too late,” said Congress MLAs from Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts including Sukhjinder Randhawa, Sukh Sarkaria and Harpartap Ajnala.
They demanded that the Central Government must pay Rs one crores each to the families of the victims alleging it of “running away from its duty and responsibility towards its citizens”.
They pointed out that it is the duty and the responsibility of the Central Government to ensure safety and security of its citizens in the foreign countries.