Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted that the release of former Navy personnel jailed in Qatar shows that India's power has increased in the world.

India's foreign policy under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised the country's strength, said Prasad, a former Union minister.

"The ex-servicemen who returned home greeted the prime minister after arriving here. They said it was possible due to his personal initiative. This shows that India's power has increased in the world," he told reporters on Tuesday.

Qatar has released eight jailed former Indian Navy personnel and seven of them returned home early Monday, 46 days after their death sentences handed last October were commuted to jail terms of varying duration.

The eight apparently faced charges of espionage but neither Qatari authorities nor New Delhi made the charges against them public.

"Wherever Indians are stranded, the Indian government works to wipe their tears," Prasad said.

He said that the Modi government has brought back students stuck in Ukraine, Hindus stranded in Afghanistan and IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman from Pakistan.

"The world listens to whatever the PM says. Not only this, more than six Islamic countries have given their country's highest award to the prime minister," Prasad said.

On leaders leaving the Congress party, he claimed that it ceased to be a serious player in Indian politics.

"People are running away from them. The remaining bricks of the Congress party are also cracking," the BJP leader said.

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