Chennai, March 12 (IANS): The Indian government has done nothing for the family members of the passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines plane that "vanished" five days earlier, a relative of one of the aircraft passengers said Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters here, K.S. Narendran, husband of passenger Chandrika Sharma, said: "It is ironical that India that claims to be a regional power and aims to play a prominent role on the global scene has no word on the incident, no offer of assistance for the search and rescue operations till yesterday (Tuesday) and no demonstrable offer of assistance to the families of Indian passengers, its very own citizens."

Narendran said he would have liked to see some basic courtesies and honourable assurances. He said only an official of the Tamil Nadu government sought some information about the family a few days ago.

While Malaysia Airlines has offered assistance to travel to Kuala Lumpur, travelling to Malaysia in the absence of definitive information about the fate of passengers appears premature, Narendran said.

"It is ironical that in this era of satellite-enabled world where people are sighted from thousands of miles away, and pin pointed, we have drawn a blank in the search for a big bird and hundreds of people in it."

Chandrika, 51, heads the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, a non-governmental organisation here as its executive secretary.

She had gone to Mongolia to attend a conference organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The couple's only daughter Meghna, a student of Ambedkar University, New Delhi, is here to be with her family.

Narendran thanked his family members, friends and his wife's colleagues for their support.