What About Kuwait Evacuation: Yashwant Sinha On "Operation Ganga"
NDTV
Remarking that the estimated number of stranded students in Ukraine was only around 18,000, Mr Sinha - a foreign minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government - said it is "not a very large number compared to airlifts India has done in the past".
The opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress have attacked the government, alleging tardy progress of evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine, which is reeling under Russian attack. While Congress's Rahul Gandhi accused the government of "not taking effective steps" and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being "missing in action", Trinamool Congress's Yashwant Sinha pointed out that India had successfully undertaken a far bigger evacuation exercise during the Gulf war in 1990.
Remarking that the estimated number of stranded students in Ukraine was only around 18,000, Mr Sinha - a foreign minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government - said it is "not a very large number compared to airlifts India has done in the past".
India, he pointed out, had evacuated 1,70,000 people from Kuwait between August and October 1990. The whole effort, he pointed out, was supervised by IK Gujral, the former Prime Minister, who was the foreign minister at the time.
"Though elections are still taking place in UP, it will be the height of tragedy to use this occasion to propagate that the government of India has done a fantastic job... The PM talking about this in election rallies in UP is not a very good thing. It is the duty of government to do this," he added.
