On Thursday, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party added a cartoon to their arsenal as they attempted to convince the country that Prime Minister Narendra was a bridge conducting Indian students to safety, even as citizens of other nations were begging their own governments for help.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, India has watched with alarm as the conflict engulfed the 20,000 or so Indians living in that country – the vast majority of whom are medical students.

Soon, social media will filled with appeals for help from Indian students who had taken shelter in Cold War-era bunkers and underground metro stations, as the bombardment got nearer and their supplies of food and water ran out.

Many undertook perilous journeys to Ukraine’s borders, where they had to wait for hours or even days in the freezing cold.

As criticism mounted against the Indian government for its inaction, it launched Operation Ganga to bring back Indian citizens. Four ministers were deputed to countries that share borders with Ukraine to supervise the initiative.

On Thursday, Minister of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi claimed more than 18,000 Indians had left Ukraine and 6,400 had been flown home under Operation Ganga.

However, many have pointed out that the government only stepped in once the students had already got themselves to safe zones outside Ukraine and that Operation Ganga was being used as a propaganda campaign by the government.

Cartoonist Ashish Bagchi responded quickly by invoking the Bharatiya Janata Party’s chaotic response to the devastating Covid-19 wave last year that left so many people dead, bodies were being buried in shallow graves in the Ganga.

Other cartoonists have also made sharp comments about Operation Ganga.

On social media, some government supporters claimed that the students were to be blamed for their predicament because they had failed to leave the war-torn region in good time.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi’s comment that the students stuck in Ukraine were there because they failed the qualifying exams in India drew this response from Satish Acharya.