Operation Rahat a feather in the Centre’s cap
India's mammoth evacuation exercise in war-torn Yemen has rightly won praise from all quarters. Conducted under incredibly difficult and taxing conditions, Operation Rahat saw the Ministry of External Affairs led by Ms Sushma Swaraj, the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force, India's national carrier Air India, Indian Railways and also some of the State Governments, work in tandem to mount a successful mission. As many as 4,640 Indian citizens and 960 foreign nationals from 41 countries, including P5 countries like the US and the UK, were evacuated, via air and sea, over a period of nine days. Two IAF C-17 Globemasters, three Air India flights, and three warships — INS Sumitra, INS Tarkash, INS Mumbai — had to be called into action.
The logistics of coordinating an operation of this scale in the middle of war zone are mind-boggling. Reaching out to thousands of people was a challenge. Then, there were the practical obstacles of unavailable airstrips, bombed out airports and docking at ports that were under fire, not to mention more mundane matters like the piles of paperwork that had to be done so that the travels adhered to international immigration laws and the limited window for flight take-offs. The operation was coordinated on the ground by the Minister of State for External Affairs, General VK Singh, who is now being celebrated as a war hero. This is possibly the first time that such a high-ranking Government leader was present in the middle of a war-zone during an evacuation operation.
At another level, there was also the diplomatic manoeuvring that had to be done to ensure that the evacuees were given safe passage. On the one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia — who is leading the coalition of Sunni Arab states currently bombing the Shia-Houthi regime that has wrested control in Yemen — and requested his assistance. New Delhi and Riyadh coordinated short time-frames during which the coalition halted its bombing and allowed Indian planes to fly in and out of Yemen, even though a no-fly zone was in place. On the other hand, Indian authorities also worked with the Houthis on the ground, who controlled the airport in Sana'a, for example, so that the people could reach the different points of departure and exit the country safely. It will be interesting to see if this evacuation becomes a stepping stone for India to assume a larger role as the region's human security provider. Traditionally, it's the Americans and the British who have shouldered this responsibility.
Operation Rahat has been such a huge success because it was built on experiences and lessons learnt from several such situations in the past. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring alone, India had conducted two rescue missions each from libya and Iraq, in 2011 and 2014, and another one from Egypt in 2011. The Government had also carried out similar missions during the 2006 lebanon war and the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. During the first Gulf War in 1990, India evacuated more than 1,10,000 people from Iraq and Kuwait, using nearly 500 Air India flights and, later, even cruise ships. That remains the world's largest civil evacuation till date.