External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has allegedly blocked Congress MP Partap Singh Bajwa on Twitter for repeatedly asking questions about 39 missing Indians in Iraq. The screenshot of the same was shared by Bajwa with a post lamenting the Union minister's behaviour. Bajwa wrote, "Is this the way to run external affairs ministry? Does it behove the office of Sushma Swaraj ji to block a Member of Parliament for asking tough questions on 39 Indians missing in Iraq?" Is this the way to run external affairs ministry? Does it behove the office of Sushma Swaraj ji to block a Member of Parliament for asking tough questions on 39 Indians missing in Iraq? pic.twitter.com/CvYl8aLREF — Partap Singh Bajwa (@Partap_Sbajwa) December 27, 2017 The confrontation between the two leaders began in July when Swaraj gave a statement in the Lok Sabha that the 39 Indians who have been missing is Iraq since 2014 where lodged in a jail in Badush town of Iraq, which had apparently been demolished by the ISIS three months ago. Outraged by Swaraj's statement in Lok Sabha, the Congress MP had said he would move a privilege motion against the External Affairs Minister for “lying to the Lok Sabha” about the whereabouts of 39 Indian youths missing in Iraq. However, Swaraj had said that an Iraqi official had told the Minister of State for External Affairs General (Retired) VK Singh that the kidnapped Indians were deployed at a hospital construction site and then shifted to a farm before they were put in a jail in Badush. She said, “It’s easier for me to declare them dead because then nobody would question me. They would silently accept it. But I cannot declare somebody dead without proof as it would be a sin to do so.” In 2014, 39 Indian labourers, mostly from Punjab, were taken hostage by Islamic State when it took control over Iraq’s second largest city Mosul.
