Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that India will make all efforts to help Nepal in its moment of need. Modi, who on Saturday remarked that “Nepal’s pain was India’s pain too”, on Sunday in his radio programme tried his best to reassure the neighbouring country that India will do its best to help Nepal stand back.
“My dear brothers and sisters of Nepal, India is with you in this hour of grief... For 125 crore Indians, Nepal is their own. India will do its best to wipe the tears of every Nepali, hold their hands and stand with them,” Modi said on his radio show ‘Mann ki Baat’. Saddened by the devastation in Nepal, Modi said he was so anguished that he did not feel like going ahead with his radio address on Sunday. But then knowing well that his radio programme is heard in Nepal as well, Modi used the opportunity to convey that his Government’s priority is to save as many lives as possible.
Modi said a number of rescue teams, along with sniffer dogs, were sent to Nepal to save as many lives adding that his Government’s priority was to rescue those people who might be still alive under the debris. “Our focus will be to rescue as many people alive as possible,” the PM said, adding the relief and rehabilitation work after the rescue operations will go on for a long time.
India is the first country to have reached out to Nepal after the Saturday earthquake rocked the Himalayan nation and reduced capital Kathmandu and neighbouring areas to rubbles. Within hours of news breaking in, two Indian Air Force aircrafts were airborne for Kathmandu carrying NDRF personnel, sniffers dogs, food, water and medicines and machines to cut through debris.
Modi is personally monitoring the rescue operation in quake-hit Nepal. He had called upon a special meeting of a few Cabinet Ministers and senior bureaucrats and security experts on Saturday to plan out the ‘Operation Maitri’. On Sunday, the PM chaired a follow-up meeting and reviewed the progress of relief and rescue operations.
Sunday’s meeting was attended by Union Finance and Information Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, along with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, Additional Principal Secretary to the PM PK Mishra, senior officials from Defence, Home, Foreign Ministries, Indian Meteorological Department and National Disaster Response Force.
With time running out due to a forecast of heavy rain in Nepal and Indian side, Modi asked the officials to increase the pace of search, rescue operations, and evacuation of people. He also directed to use road routes, in addition to the air route, to bring out people at the earliest. The PM asked a team of senior officials to reach Kathmandu to co-ordinate operations there and added the highest priority should be accorded to providing food and water supplies, including milk powder, to the affected areas.