Moved by the story of Indian national Jagannathan Selvaraj, who walked nearly 1,000 km over a span of two years in Dubai for justice, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has ensured that the man is back with his family in India. “We have brought him back to India and sent him to his village. He went up and down to the court 20 times over a year. That made it 1,000 km,” Swaraj tweeted. Selvaraj, who hails from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, was working in Dubai where he got entangled in a court case.
He told the Khaleej Times that since he had no money to take bus to the labour court he braved traffic, heat, sandstorm and exhaustion to attend the court proceedings. Selvaraj had filed a case in Dubai’s labour court after he was denied permission by his employer to attend his mother’s funeral. His case went on for almost two years during which Selvaraj walked at least 20 times to Karama district in Dubai from Sonapur and back, thus every time covering a distance of over 50 km in four hours. Selvaraj added he had been living in a public park for several months and was desperate to return to India. Following the news report, MEA had sought a report about Selvaraj from the Indian Consulate in Dubai.
Foreign Minister helps overweight Egyptian get medical visa
Sushma also intervened for a visa for an Egyptian citizen Eman Ahmed, who weighs 500kgs and wanted to come to India on a medical visa for a corrective surgery. Earlier she had denied the visa but on a tweet request from Dr Muffi lakdawala, bariatric surgeon from Mumbai, the Minister intervened and Eman was given the visa in less than 24 hours. “Embassy in Cairo called Visa granted. Thank you so much for this prompt response, impressed Appreciate the help,” Dr lakdawala tweeted.