After a 21-year-old student from Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore district had joined the paramilitary forces in Ukraine to fight against Russian invasion, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram stated that civilians from other nations should not join the war in the European nation.
According to India Today report, the Congress MP while speaking on the Russia-Ukraine conflict said, “This is highly dangerous. My view on the Ukraine war is different. We are only listening to US and European versions of the war and not that of Russia. I’m against war but we need to listen to both sides of the story. Also, I don’t agree with citizens of other nations joining the war. Imagine if a Muslim youth from Coimbatore goes to Syria and fights against Assad. Wouldn’t he be called a Jihadi? or go to Iraq to fight against the US. So how can we accept an Indian student going to Ukraine to fight? "
"Ukraine is a white Christian country. How can there be a different scale of judgment for Ukraine and Middle Eastern countries," asked the Congress MP.
Mr Chidambaram further said that Centre should also explore the possibility of letting students continue their medical education in India. Chidambaram said that if the students could not be accommodated in Indian medical colleges, then Centre must look at the possibility of letting them study in other foreign countries.
He further said, "Decision should be taken about waving off their student loans or giving them more time to pay them back and arrangements should be made for these students to continue their studies in other countries with which India has good diplomatic relationships, as it is difficult to allocate medical seats to all of them here."
For the unversed, in 2018, Sainikesh went to Ukraine to study at the National Aerospace University in Kharkiv. He was to complete the course by July 2022.
In the midst of the ongoing war in Ukraine, his family had lost communication with Sainikesh. After seeking the embassy’s help, they were able to contact Sainikesh. He informed his family that he had joined the Ukrainian paramilitary forces to fight against Russia.
