Modi Govt's Hero Complex: Nothing New With India’s Rescue Operations Overseas

The care of Indians abroad is a basic task that all Indian governments and diplomats have always taken seriously. There were instances – before Modi assumed the office of Prime Minister in May 2014 – when Indians caught in armed conflict were brought home safely.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter & Namita Chauhan/The Quint)

As the 2024 elections are upon us, it is not surprising that the government is pulling out all stops to project Prime Minister Narendra Modi as always caring for the welfare of his Paarivar or 'Indian family’ whether its members are in India or abroad.

As part of this projection, Anurag Thakur, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, has put out a social media post on X along with a video.

The post states, Jo Raksha Kare Saat Samundar Paar Voh Hai Hamara Parivar. The attached video shows a girl obviously coming from a war-torn country telling her once worried, but now happy parents, that she was certain that Modiji would get ‘them’ to safety. She adds that he succeeded in "stopping the war so that their convoy could pass."

Modi Government’s Tendency To Go Overboard With Rescue Credits

There is no doubt that the Modi government has done well in getting Indians caught in the midst of armed conflict safely back to India.

However, the care of Indians abroad is a basic task that all Indian governments and diplomats have always taken seriously. There were instances – before Modi assumed the office of Prime Minister in May 2014 – when Indians caught in armed conflict were brought home safely.

There were also cases in the past when Indian authorities negotiated with erratic and autocratic rulers for the well-being of People of Indian Origin (PIOs) who were bearing the brunt of discrimination. In this perspective, the Modi government has carried forward the traditional and well-established approaches of India towards both Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and PIOs.

In 1972, President Idi Amin of Uganda ordered the expulsion of PIOs. The PIO community was very prominent in business and professions. Their property was expropriated and the Ugandan authorities treated them inhumanely.

Around 27,000 PIOs held British nationality and went to Britain. About 4,500 returned to India. The then-Indian government raised its voice strongly against Amin’s actions and broke off diplomatic ties. Uganda suffered enormously because of the departure of the PIOs. Later, in 1986, some of the PIOs were welcomed back by Kampala after Amin had been ousted from power.

Significantly, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni admitted in his speech to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit held in Kampala in January that the expulsion of PIOs was a mistake. He attributed it to Amin who, he said, was an ignorant man because of whom Uganda suffered.

Times When Indians Trapped Abroad Were Pulled Out to Safety

In Fiji too, India always sought to ensure that PIOs were not discriminated against under the Constitution. When the Fiji military under Sitiveni Rabuka staged a coup against the government in 1987 because it had a substantial PIO participation, India became diplomatically active against Rabuka and also did all it could to alleviate the suffering of the Indians in Fiji.

Now coming to the NRIs who get caught up in conflict situations. The first time a very large number of them got into a precarious situation was when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990. The Western countries led by the US demanded that Hussein should withdraw his forces. They were supported by the Gulf Arab states led by Saudi Arabia.

Hussein refused and it became clear soon that war was looming and that India had to act to ensure that it was able to secure Iraqi consent for the Indians to leave. It required deft diplomacy apart from making the logistical arrangements for the airlift of 1,70,000 Indians. But that was accomplished.

It demonstrated that India did not leave its nationals in the lurch and that it had the capacity to arrange for the evacuation of a large number of NRIs when the situation so warranted.

During the collapse of the administrative apparatus in Libya in 2011 after it was attacked by the Western powers who wanted to oust the dictator Muammar Gaddafi from power, NRIs working in that oil-rich country needed to pull out to safety.

The diplomatic apparatus under the instructions of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government moved into action and using Malta as a base brought around 15,000 Indians out of the conflict zone to safety. Both the sea and air assets were used.

Ukraine Operation Was Noteworthy but 'Stopping a War’ Claim Is a Stretch

In the Modi years, Indians have been rescued from war-torn places in Yemen and Sudan. The operations for the evacuation of NRIs were meticulously planned and executed.

India also successfully evacuated other Indians when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani shamefully fled the country.

However, if there was one rescue operation that needed to be singled out as an outstanding success, requiring a great many interlocking pieces to all fall in place together it was during the Ukraine war.

Around 23,000 Indians, most of them students in Ukraine, got caught up in the conflict. They were living in different parts of the country. As the war began, the Indian authorities had to ensure, first of all, that they remained in their places of stay as securely as possible.

It is to Modi’s credit that he took a personal interest in the rescue operations and also deployed sufficient political and diplomatic resources. He also spoke to the Russian and Ukrainian leaders on the welfare of the Indians who had to be moved out to safety.

The logistical arrangements required that they reach neighbouring countries and that during the movement of their convoys, the combatants agreed not to take hostile action against each other so that the convoys did not become collateral damage.

All evacuations in war need the agreement of the sides engaged in kinetic action to reach such agreements without which they cannot be undertaken. Naturally, for the uninitiated and for electoral purposes, they can be projected as a great leader 'stopping a war’.

Some Setbacks

Amidst these successes, there was a case of failure too.

In 2014, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) captured 39 Indians in Iraq. The Modi government tried all it could to, in the first place, get authentic information about their welfare. There were indications that they had been killed.

The government took the view that it could not confirm this until it had authentic information about their deaths. It dismissed accounts that they were not alive. It was only when the area held by ISIS was liberated by the Iraqi government forces and a mass grave was found that DNA tests were carried out.

They confirmed that the dead were indeed the 39 captured Indians. It was then that the then External Affairs Minister told Parliament in March 2018 that they were no more.

During the election season, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will leave no stone unturned to project Modi as a saviour of the people. The Anurag Thakur social media message and the accompanying video indicate that.

(The writer is a former Secretary [West], Ministry of External Affairs. He can be reached @VivekKatju. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)