Even as the Centre on Thursday claimed that it was aware of the location of the 40 Indians abducted in Iraq, Opposition Congress on Thursday accused the Government of a lackadaisical approach and questioned the modus operandi of monitoring the situation.
Senior party leader Ambika Soni, who hails from Punjab from where many of those abducted belong, wondered what kind of monitoring the Government was doing that it did not know who had kidnapped the Indians and where they were kept.
"It is very good that the External Affairs Minister is monitoring it but that monitoring should have been done much before because the Ministry of External Affairs does have some kind of information before international events of this magnitude and gravity happen.
"Somewhere some laxity has happened. Somewhere they just slept over it. The Government must have got some information. Something must have come to the knowledge of the Ministry of External Affairs earlier," Soni said. AICC spokesperson Anand Sharma said that the Government must intensify its efforts for evacuation and return of all its citizens from Iraq.
In a statement, Sharma said Congress strongly condemns the abductions of Indian workers, which has caused deep distress to the affected families and hoped that the ongoing diplomatic efforts to reach out to the concerned parties and interest groups will succeed in ensuring an early release.
Party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar also took a dig at the Government, saying, "The question now is, ‘can the successor Government do itIJ’. I don’t have much faith in these naive people, who have come to office without experience." He, however, said he has great faith in the Indian Foreign Service.
"I am sure that our diplomats will succeed to a very large measure in protecting Indian communities that are endangered in (Iraq) as a result of the ongoing conflict there," he said.