The BJP MP from Ranchi, Sanjay Seth, on Friday requested external affairs minister S. Jaishankar to urge the Russian government to ensure that Indian students studying in that country are not “forced” to return to their respective institutions as the spread of coronavirus has not stopped.

“There are about 6,000 Indian students, including 200 from my state, who study mostly medicine at various institutions in Russia,” Seth wrote in a letter that he handed over after meeting the minister in New Delhi on Friday.

During the pandemic, the government had brought back these students from Russia, Seth said, adding that their institutions, through various channels like their Indian agents, were now asking them to return.

“These students were attending online classes,” the letter said, adding that the students as well as their guardians are now worried that their institutions were telling their wards must return to Russia now.

“The students are not coming out openly against such a decision (of their institutions) as they are afraid this might put their career at stake and affect their future,” Seth further said.

The students said that the family of one of them had to spend a huge amount of money to bring back his body when he died in Russia during the pandemic, Seth said. He added that the students had to face many other difficulties in that country.

In the letter, copies of which have been shared with a section of media, Seth urged Jaishankar to take up the matter with the Russian government so that these students are not “forced” to return at this stage.

That will bring relief to both the students and their guardians and will also protect their future, Seth added.