Russia-Ukraine crisis | Why were students from Ukraine not brought back earlier, asks Mamata

The Trinamool chief says lives of students are more important than politics

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was speaking to reporters in Kolkata before leaving for Uttar Pradesh to campaign for the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing assembly polls there. File | Photo Credit: PTI

Days after writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and offering unconditional support to him on the Ukraine crisis, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked why were students not brought back earlier from the war-torn country.

 “I don’t want to criticise the government on external affairs matter… But sometimes, I have seen that on matters of external affairs also, because of some coordination gap, because of some political business, we are lagging behind. Our students are stuck there and somebody died. Some are waiting in bunkers and some are in Romania,” Ms. Banerjee said. The Chief Minister was speaking to journalists before leaving for Uttar Pradesh to campaign for the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing Assembly polls there.

Ms. Banerjee asserted that it was the responsibility of the Union government to bring back Indians stuck in Ukraine and asked, “If the government was aware about the facts, why did not they bring back the students earlier… This is fault, this is negligence”. Her comments came a day after a medical student from Karnataka’s Haveri district was killed in intense shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday.

 The Trinamool Congress chairperson said Ministers making speeches in front of students returning from Ukraine did not bode well with the ongoing situation. “Humanity is more important than politics and the Central government should realise this. Lives of students are more important than politics,” she said.

‘Need for peace’

Highlighting the need for peace, Ms. Banerjee said India could take lead in peace talks.

“The COVID pandemic has destroyed everything. Now if there is war everything will be destroyed. How many wars will the world see,” she said.

Asked about whether there had been any response to her letter addressed to the Prime Minister where she had sought an all-party meeting on the issue, Ms. Banerjee replied, “I have done my duty. Now it is for them to decide. Maybe they are busy with elections.”