Congress leader Manish Tewari has said the ministry of external affairs never took the concerns about the retired navy personnel arrested in Qatar seriously and the Narendra Modi government will have to share the blame if something happens to them.

The eight naval officials taken into custody in 2022 have now been sentenced to death.

Tewari told The Telegraph: “I have been repeatedly raising the issue of the eight naval officers incarcerated in Doha since August 2022 both inside and outside Parliament. It is a travesty that they have been sentenced to death on charges that are still unknown. If anything happens to them, their death would be on the government’s head.”

The Congress MP from Punjab said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take up the matter at the highest level with the government of Qatar and bring the former officers back home by getting their sentences commuted immediately.

The Prime Minister has an excellent rapport with the Qatar authorities.

When Tewari raised the matter in the Lok Sabha on December 7 last year, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar responded to him through a letter written on December 23 explaining how the issue had been raised through diplomatic channels and consular assistance provided to ensure their release. The letter said arrangements had been made to enable communication between the arrested eight and their families.

Jaishankar claimed that the government accorded the highest priority to the safety of Indians working abroad and said all the men would be brought back safely. But Tewari said: “The tragedy is that the ministry of external affairs and Jaishankar never took the entreaties of the family members, ex-servicemen and members of Parliament seriously. This is not a matter where we need to indulge in he-said-she-said or score brownie points. The lives of very senior naval personnel are at stake.”

He added: “Had Jaishankar or the ministry been serious, things would never have come to this pass. The BJP government for all its muscular nationalism has completely failed to protect the dignity, honour and lives of our ex-servicemen.”

Tewari said the families had not been informed of the charges and even the lawyer engaged for their defence was evasive.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said: “This is extremely worrying and shocking. The government of India should use political, diplomatic and legal options to save the Indian citizens.”

AIMIM leader Asauddin Owaisi posted on X: “In August, I had raised the issue of our ex-naval officers stuck in Qatar. Today they have been sentenced to death. Modi has boasted about how much Islamic countries love him. He must bring our ex-naval officers back. It is very unfortunate that they face the death row.”