Congress leader Rajya Sabha member Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday said Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had blocked him on Twitter in order to avoid the topic of 39 Indians who have been missing in Iraq since 2014.
Swaraj blocked Bajwa?
Though the Punjab Congress president doesn't follows the EAM on Twitter, Bajwa takes to Twitter to convey to her the problems faced by Indians in foreign countries.
According to a Hindustan Times report, Bajwa realised Swaraj had blocked him when he was unable to tweet to her about reports of Sikh community in Hangu district of Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province alleging that they were being forcibly converted to Islam.
"Is this the way to run external affairs ministry? Does it behove the office of Sushma Swaraj Ji to block a Member of Parliament for asking tough questions on 39 missing Indians in Iraq? [sic]" Bajwa tweeted on Wednesday. He also uploaded a screengrab of he being blocked by Swaraj on Twitter.
"I am not following her on Twitter. As an MP, I tweet to her regarding problems faced by Indians, especially Punjabis, in other countries so that she can take it up with her counterparts. But if she can block an MP, what will be her attitude towards others?" Bajwa told HT.
Is this the way to run external affairs ministry?
— Partap Singh Bajwa (@Partap_Sbajwa) December 27, 2017
Does it behove the office of Sushma Swaraj ji to block a Member of Parliament for asking tough questions on 39 Indians missing in Iraq? pic.twitter.com/CvYl8aLREF
Bajwa had twice alleged that the Swaraj was misguiding people about the 39 Indians missing in Iraq, of whom most were from Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Jalandhar districts in Punjab.
The missing Indian youths used to work in a construction firm in Mosul — which was once the stronghold of the Islamic State group (ISIS) — and were reportedly abducted by ultras of ISIS on June 11, 2014.
The whereabouts of the 39 Indian youth was never ascertained.
Bajwa said on one hand while Swaraj is trying to assure the missing youths' families that they will be found, she was changing her criteria often.
The Punjab Congress president said the foreign minister had earlier claimed the missing youth were in a jail in Iraq's Badush town. However, a news channel reported that the jail had been destroyed by ISIS.
In October-end, the Ministry of External Affairs asked the Punjab administration to collect DNA samples from the kin of the missing youth when the Iraqi authorities informed India about mass graves being found in and around the Mosul and Badush areas after the Islamic militants were wiped out from the region.
Swaraj during the winter session said the DNA samples have already been sent for matching.
However, there is no information on why Swaraj blocked Bajwa.
