Mumbai:
Parents will do anything to save their offspring, even if it means surrendering societal notions of self-esteem and knocking on the doors of corporate honchos and movie stars to raise the money required for the purpose.
The alleged governmental disinterest coupled with a ransom demand of nearly Rs 11.2 crore ($2.5 million) has forced the families of six Indian sailors help captive on board the MV Iceberg-I to do exactly that.
The Panama-flagged vessel was captured by Somali pirates about 10 nautical miles off the port of Aden, Yemen, on March 29, 2010 and the sailors have been in captivity for more than 14 months.
"We can no longer trust the government because it has failed to keep its promises. We request the business fraternity and Bollywood to help us in raising funds for the release of our sons.
They have helped needy families in the past and we hope that they will help us too. We will take to the roads to draw people's attention if need be," said Purshottam Tiwari, father of Dheeraj, who is the chief officer-in-command of MV Iceberg-I.
"We have spoken to those mediating between us and the pirates. They always ask about the ransom money whether we have arranged for it or we need more time some more time.
At the same time, we have also spoken to our sons through the mediators, who have repeated the pirates' demands.
Hence, it is amply clear that all the pirates need is money. It is very unfortunate, however, that the governments at the state and Centre have failed to help us, both directly and indirectly," he added.
The families also point to the case of MV Suez, in which Pakistani social activist played a key role in helping the families raise the ransom amount by themselves instead of depending on the government.
"We have to take the same approach. We will approach Burney and see if he is willing to help us in negotiations like he had for the families of M V Suez.
We hope he will agree," said Mansingh Mohite, father of abducted sailor, Ganesh, who is from Mumbai.
Mr Tiwari alleged that the government is unwilling to help them because the people involved are not high-profile ones.
"Our children are very low profile as compared to captives in other cases. Had it been a plane hijack, the government would have done anything to ensure the captives' release.
The hijack of IC-814 by a Pakistan-based terror organisation is one such example where the government released hardcore terrorists and doled out money to send negotiators to help with the passengers' release," he said.
The distraught families have pleaded with the who's who of the nation, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan, Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewary, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekhar, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, the Director General (Shipping) and even yoga guru Ramdev, but to no avail. The families also staged a dharna near Jantar Mantar along with Sushma Swaraj.
HostagesIndian sailors on board the MV Iceberg-I are: Dheeraj Tiwari from Nashik, Swapnil Jadhav from Satara, Ganesh Mohite from Mumbai, Saji Kumar Purshottam from Kerala, Santosh Kumar Yadav from Uttar Pradesh and Jaswinder Singh from Haryana.
6Number of Indian sailors held captive by Somali pirates since March 2010
Rs 11 croreThe ransom demanded by the Somali pirates