India continues to lose skilled tradesmen, scientists and engineers to these middle eastern sheikhdoms and other countries for reasons I need not mention. I'm sure there are many may more Indians that have picked up lucrative jobs post-retirement. See the sentiments expressed in this old post viewtopic.php?p=2159527#p2159527
The labour pool of Indians, most of whom are blue collar workers have suffered many indignities over the years. And for most of this time, the Indian embassy has been unwilling or unable to help, a combination of not having as much clout as western countries and general incompetence. Asking them to pitch in is a bit too much. I had family representing Indian state companies in Qatar in the late 90s. At the time, even Indian professionals were not treated that well.
This might be an unpopular opinion here on BRF, but the ex-navy officers were not representing the Indian armed forces or the Indian government in any capacity and the consular support that should be extended to them should be the same as that India extends to every other Indian citizen. The 'ex-navy' statement being emphasized repeatedly in every media outlet and portraying this as an attack on the nation tells me that someone wants to make this into a big deal. For all I know they could well have been acting against Qatari interests in exchange for money - which is the reason that Indians land up in the middle east in the first place.