India has managed to bring out most of its nationals, including students from war-torn country, as the last big group of about 700 Indian students were evacuated from the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy by a special train from Poltava. They are likely to board a flight to India from Poland on Thursday.
With this evacuation, India rescued more than 18,000 of its citizens via nearly 80 special flights as part of “Operation Ganga” starting February 22. Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday “Operation Ganga” was the result of the “whole Government approach” of the Prime Minister.
He also charged the Congress and other Opposition parties of reaching “a new low in politics” by seeing the Government efforts from the prism of “publicity”.
Informing that the last batch of Indian students have safely moved away from Sumy and proceeded to the Poland border on their way back home, he complimented the PM for taking “strong measures” to evacuate Indian nationals from Ukraine.
While lashing out at the Congress for “not standing together” in the hour of crisis be it Galwan, coronavirus pandemic or now on the Ukraine issue, Goyal said the Modi Government adopted the “whole Government approach” in evacuating students.
“Modi took eight ministerial meetings and each day took strong measures to get each Indian citizen back home ...spoke to Russian President three times, Ukraine head twice and chiefs of five countries bordering Ukraine ...”, he said.
The BJP leader said, “We are proud that the last batch of Indian students have safely moved to a camp and would be on their way to their country.”
He claimed there is no such example from any other country — China evacuating their first batch on March 5 and “America giving prior advisory to their nationals to leave. “
Answering a question, the BJP leader said the Government gave an advisory on February 15 but unfortunately students did not take it seriously..their universities too misled them, he said.
He said the Prime Minister also approached non-Governmental Organisations and religious, spiritual sects and Indian businessmen in Ukraine to help the stranded students.
Besides, he said the Prime Minister asked district officials to meet families of the students and inform the Ministry of External Affairs.
Goyal hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for sharing Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tweet on the issue and Congress falsely claiming a student from Kashmir not being rescued “while he himself releasing a video thanking government for bringing him back.”
“The Congress touched a new low in politics and sought to see rescue operations as publicity…,” he said and pointed out that a Southern State Chief Minister wanted their students to be given “priority in the evacuation,” he said.
He said India evacuated its citizens through neighbouring nations and people brought their pets back too. “We evacuated citizens from Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh as well,” Goyal said.
As regards bringing out foreign nationals including the Pakistani woman, sources said here 17 foreign nationals were rescued. Besides the Pakistani woman, a Nepalese citizen, two Tunisian and 13 Bangladeshi nationals were rescued by India, along with nearly 700 Indian citizens.
All these people were evacuated from Sumy on Tuesday by the Indian Embassy with help from the International Committee of Red Cross, after Russia and Ukraine agreed to create a humanitarian corridor following separate telephonic conversations Modi had with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trains will take the students to Lviv in western Ukraine, from where they will be taken to Poland in buses, Anshad Ali, a student coordinator, said. The distance between Poltava and Lviv is around 888 km.
The rescue operation in Sumy began on Tuesday morning when the last big group of around 700 Indians was evacuated from the city. The Indian nationals were taken from Sumy in a convoy of 13 buses escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) toPoltava city, Ali said.
Ali, who spoke to PTI from Poltava, said it is a nearly-12-hour train journey to Lviv, from where the students will be taken to Poland via buses. Lviv is located about 50 km from the Poland border.
After crossing the frontier, the students will be flown out on evacuation flights from Poland. “The students left Sumy at around 9:30 am. First, they reached Poltava, which is 170 km away and then they boarded a train to Lviv,” Ali said.
“From Lviv, they will be taken to Poland in buses and then they are expected to board a flight for India on Thursday,” he added.