There is a time for politics. There is a time for furthering one’s political agenda. And this is certainly not the time, when India has launched its biggest evacuation efforts in living memory, extricating its citizens under extremely difficult conditions from a conflict zone. Operation Ganga is the toughest that India has ever tried, given the ferocious nature of the attack that Vladimir Putin’s Russia has launched on Ukraine, with missiles and bombs raining down, and with the country’s capital Kyiv under threat of falling in the hands of the invading forces. The scale is mammoth, with thousands needed to be evacuated. Already one Indian national, a young student from Karnataka, has lost his life in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, in a Russian missile strike. Even if young Indian students manage to reach Ukraine’s borders, they are being made to wait for days by the border guards, who, from all accounts, are letting Ukrainians cross first, and only then the Indians, the West Asians and the Africans. Similar stories are being heard about the railways as well, where Ukrainians are being given the first priority to board the trains. Even then, apparently, all Indians have managed to move out of Kyiv, and our embassy has been shut, with diplomats too moving west to Lviv to operate from there. While it seems over 60% of the students have been evacuated from Ukraine, until Wednesday morning, there was a substantial number of students in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border. On Wednesday afternoon, there was an urgent advisory from the Indian embassy in Ukraine, asking all Indians to move out of Kharkiv and reach certain locations around 10-15 km outside the city by 6 pm, Ukrainian time, “under all circumstances”, which should convey the urgency of the matter. According to the Ministry of External Affairs the time window was given on the “basis of information from Russia”, which should give an idea of the negotiation that the government would have conducted with the Russians to get this window for Indian nationals. It’s because of similar negotiations that countries bordering Ukraine, that Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova have eased restrictions for Indians to get an entry into these countries. Indian Air Force aircraft have been sent to Ukraine’s bordering countries with aid and to facilitate the evacuation process; private airlines have been hired to bring these students out; Union ministers, diplomats and bureaucrats have reached Ukraine’s neighbouring countries facilitating the process.
This is a life and death situation. There is a war going on. There are bound to be lapses on the part of the government, in terms of organising transport for students out of these cities or ensuring that they cross the border fast—perhaps it is just not possible. Our ministers, diplomats and bureaucrats are trying their best to cope with an extremely critical situation with utmost urgency. Almost nothing is in India’s hands. Every minute is crucial. Even as this is being written, thousands of Indian students are headed out of Kharkiv, trying to reach the locations that have been given to India by the Russians. Amid this, the last thing India needs is a bunch of politically motivated critics trying to derive political mileage out of the situation, by latching on to every video about non availability of transport or other issues, to score political points. There are enough news reports to prove that no other country—not even the US, UK and China—is trying to evacuate its citizens like the way India is doing. Unable to extricate their nationals from a warzone, they have left them to fend for themselves. Compare this with what India is doing—actually, there is no comparison; India is way ahead of every country in this respect. In such a situation, it’s the time to stay united—to show support to the people who are involved in the evacuation process, so that they do not lose their morale. There will be enough time to criticize the “system”, to tear apart the government. But now is not the time. This is the time to help the evacuation process in any which way. Even disseminating information through social media will be of help. This is the time to pray for those students who are out there on Ukraine’s streets, moving on foot towards safer locations. This is the time to be Indian.