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Evacuating 22,500 Indian nationals from a war-torn country is no easy task. But the central government’s Operation Ganja – one of the largest bailouts conducted anywhere in the world last year after the start of the Ukraine war on February 24, 2022 – would not have been possible without excellent statesmanship, smooth coordination on the ground and little else. He settled with the help of Indian friends in these countries.
History TV18 original documentary, Evacuation: Operation Ganges, which premiered on Saturday (June 17) showed how the Indian diaspora settled in Ukraine and its neighboring countries – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania – stepped in to feed, clothe and house the students evacuated from these routes. In doing so, it adopts the old value of Vasudeva Kutumbakam It means “the world is one family”.
In the most challenging of times right after Russia invaded its neighbor, India had to take care of its huge number of students who were stranded in Ukraine waiting to return home. Alongside government efforts led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top ministers and Indian embassies, the country has found solace in its diaspora.
Prime Minister Modi said in the documentary: “Wherever Indians are in the world, even though their passports are discolored, they have a blood connection to their country… We are all blood related to India.”
“I made more than 160 calls to hotels and motels in the area. When I managed to get in touch with a certain hotelier, he thought I had lost him when I told him I needed 250 mattresses to be arranged within 24 hours,” said Amit Lat, vice president of the Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry. , speaking of the manner in which he made arrangements for the accommodation of the Indian students before they were evacuated on the flights.
“I called a company and asked them if they could arrange almost 3,000 SIM cards; they sent 20,000 of them through free internet, not only to Indians but to all those crossing the border,” said Chandramohan Nallur, Business Relations Manager of the Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditia Scindia, who was sent to Romania to oversee the rescue operations, said, “All our citizens and others in those countries, who were sitting around and cooking meals, arranging buses for transportation, tending to students’ medical needs – it was on a scale perhaps India has never seen before.” Our NRIs have come to really help our students.”
Continuing the spirit of India, Modi has personally reached out to leaders of spiritual organizations. “When the Prime Minister called, there was deep concern in his voice; he asked us to set up relief camps as soon as possible in the border towns of any of these countries neighboring Ukraine because thousands of students are trapped. Brahmaviharidas Swami, International Coordinator and Spokesperson for BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, said, We immediately went to mobilize our strength to set up the relief camp.
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who went to Hungary during Operation Ganga, said: “Full marks to the social assistance providers. One’s heart is filled with such gratitude and humility. They would feed people, no matter what numbers they came. Every single one of them – there was a case of a restaurant owner from Vienna, a Sikh man, who came with his family and was doing 600 meals a day.”
There were people from all sorts of organizations – from the Gurdwara and the Temple in Warsaw to the Art of Living and followers of Swaminarayan, said Union Minister General V K Singh (RITD), who was sent as a special envoy to Poland. “We even put Arcelor Mittal there,” he added.
“Wipro, Infosys, Sunpharma and a number of these companies have come out on top,” Cindia added.
Arian Thakur, a medical student rescued from Ukraine, said, “There were thousands of students and long lines in the border towns of Ukraine. Some students were even putting their clothes in the fire to keep warm as it was really cold.”
“Many of them were wearing jeans and a hoodie, and they had nothing to eat. It was a very worrying situation,” said Nagma Malik, the Indian ambassador to Poland and Lithuania.
One of the students said that there was constant shelling and it was not safe at all and they were mostly staying in the bunkers. “The first dugout I went to was very crowded,” said Nimesha Lumpa, a medical student from Delhi.
“There was water and power lines inside those bunkers and it was suffocating to be in them,” said Mohammad Mehtab Raza, a medical student from Champaran, Bihar state.
Operation Ganja, which began on February 26, 2022, has been successful and historic from many angles as well as a great example of how the government can perform under the most difficult circumstances.
However, India also faced a huge loss. Medical student Navin Shekharapa, aged 21, was killed in a bombing in Kharkiv on 1 March. Among those caught in the crossfire was Kiev language student Harjot Singh, who was seriously wounded but evacuated on the last flight home by an Indian plane. Air Force C17 transport aircraft.
Modi said that when the students were leaving Ukraine, all facilities were available for them and they were allowed to travel safely and reach the border, whenever they showed the Indian flag.
“Har Ghar Teranga happened in Ukraine and wherever the flag was visible in the war-torn country it was flying and safe passage was assured,” said Scindia.
The color of the flag was stronger than the color of the skin. Prime Minister Modi said that this whole experience taught Indian students the power of the tricolor. “No other country has done this to its own citizens.”
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