Madhya Pradesh Congress President Jitu Patwari has strongly condemned the mistreatment of Indian citizens deported from the United States, calling it a grave insult to the country and its people. He criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating that the incident was a serious blow to India's dignity and national pride.
While talking to mediapersons, here on Friday, , Patwari recalled that when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, he had promised to make India a global leader, asserting that the world would bow before the country’s strength. He had also pledged to bring back fugitive criminals and recover black money stashed abroad. However, after ten years, the reality has been starkly different, with Indian citizens facing humiliation on foreign soil, he alleged.
Patwari specifically targeted former US President Donald Trump, who he said was a close ally of Modi but had disrespected and mistreated Indian citizens. Referring to the recent deportation of 104 Indian nationals from the United States on February 6, Patwari described the inhumane conditions in which they were sent back. The deportees included 33 individuals from Haryana, 33 from Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three from Uttar Pradesh, three from Maharashtra, and two from Chandigarh. Among them were 19 women and 13 children.
According to Patwari, the deportees were treated like prisoners and were shackled with chains on their hands, feet, and necks throughout the 40-hour journey. Despite the flight stopping at four locations for refueling, US authorities showed no empathy towards them. He alleged that they were even taken to the bathroom in handcuffs, and all 104 passengers were forced to share a single washroom. He further revealed that the deportees had been detained in the US for 11 days before being sent back, subjected to severe hardships, including being allowed to sleep for only one hour a day.
Slamming the Modi government, Patwari accused External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar of indirectly supporting the actions of the US authorities. He alleged that Jaishankar misled the Parliament by falsely claiming that women were not handcuffed. He expressed outrage that, for the first time in India's history, its citizens had been subjected to such humiliation by another country, while the BJP-led central government had shamelessly justified the incident in Parliament. He criticized the Prime Minister’s silence, stating that Modi had shown no concern for the dignity of Indian citizens or the honor of Bharat Mata.
Patwari also raised questions about why the US aircraft carrying the deported Indians was not allowed to land in Delhi or Gujarat and was instead forced to land in Punjab, where the BJP is not in power. He argued that it would have been far more dignified if India had sent its own aircraft to bring back its citizens with honor. He emphasized that these individuals were not terrorists but had gone to the US in search of a livelihood. The Congress leader called the government's handling of the situation disgraceful and shameful.
