Bengaluru, Oct 27 (IANS): Karnataka Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Friday slammed the Centre for downplaying the incident of death penalty awarded to the eight former Indian Naval Force officers in Qatar.

Taking to the social media on Friday, Rao -- also the AICC In-Charge Secretary of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry -- stated that it is shocking that a court in Qatar had awarded the death penalty to eight former staff members of Indian Naval Force. "But, on the pretext of maintaining secrecy, the central government is dubbing it as a normal incident. Is awarding of death penalty to the staff who had rendered services to the Indian Navy a normal incident?" he questioned.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry had maintained that they have got only preliminary information on the development of death penalty to former officers of the Indian Navy. Is this not a failure of the central government's statesmanship? The former officers of the Indian Navy were in Qatar prison. What was the central government doing all these days? Minister Rao charged.

"The development of awarding the death penalty to eight former Navy officers of India is a matter of grave concern for the whole country. The judgment which had come amid the Israel-Palestine strife is matter to be worried. Those who had served the country have been awarded the death penalty on a foreign land. The central government has to tread sensitively regarding the matter," he explained.

It is not only the families of those who were awarded the death penalty are concerned, the whole nation is concerned about the development.

The central government in the guise of maintaining secrecy washes off its hands, it is like sacrificing those who had served the country. The central government must know the sensitivity of the matter, Minister Rao stated.