Learning From India’s ‘Operation Ganga’ And Alacritous Evacuation Of Her Citizens From Ukraine -By Isaac Asabor

If there is any country that protectively loves its nationals in diaspora, just like America, it is unarguably India. To profile the country in this context, it is expedient to say that August 15 has remained a memorable day in her history. The significance of the date cannot be downplayed in this context as it was on August 15, 1947, that she won her independence after a long and bitter struggle.

Against the foregoing backdrop, it may not be wrong to guesstimate that not few elderlies that were in their youthful or teenage days when the Asian country gained independence will always remember that at the stroke of midnight, Jawaharlal Nehru read out his “Tryst with destiny” speech, proclaiming India’s independence. As documented by historians, he became the first Prime Minister of Independent India.

As documented in history, India is a land of different cultures, heritages, many languages and religions, and despite the differences, India is in its all ramifications united in its diversity.

It has also being gathered that virtually all Indians are proud of their country, given the beautiful cultures, languages, places and the good heart that characterize who they are. The foregoing virtues, no doubt, make them feel proud that they are born in such a beautiful land, and that unarguably influence their patriotic disposition to India as a country. An Indian once proudly responded, “Our mother India has been teaching her children different skills and talents such as sports, archery, defenses, music, dance, art, humanity, kindness, love, tenderness and acting, .When we have such a beautiful land to live in, then why will not our heart be filled with pride?”.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the way India loves its citizens has further been deepened in the mind of her admirers, like this writer, as it has in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine Conflict demonstrated through ‘Operation Ganga’ which shows India left no Stone unturned to bring back her citizens from Ukraine to their homeland.

In fact, India has stepped up its efforts and doing all it can to ensure the safe return of its citizens. Against the foregoing backdrop, the government said that it would be sending four of its ministers to Ukraine’s neighboring countries to expedite the process

For the sake of clarity, India’s ‘Operation Ganga’, which is unarguably driving the alacritous evacuation is a rescue operations been carried out to bring back all Indians stuck in Ukraine. As gathered, India has gone ahead full steam wherein six Air India planes were seen flying back civilians from the conflict-ridden zone.

Reacting to pleas and appeals from stranded Indian students in Ukraine, which emerged on social media, India launched the multi-pronged ‘Operation Ganga’ to evacuate her citizens stranded in Ukraine after Russia invaded it.
Despite the fact that Ukrainian airspace is closed, India has been carrying out evacuation flights from neighboring countries of Romanian capital Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest.

It was also gathered that as at yesterday, February 28, 2022, that six Air India flights have brought back those stuck in the war zone and many more such efforts are ongoing. In fact, the government has announced that four Union ministers would travel to Poland and Romania to oversee the evacuation of thousands of Indians, including students, who are still stuck there.

For the sake of clarity, ‘Operation Ganga’ is the initiative launched by the government of India to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine. Under this, India has already successfully brought back more than a thousand of its nationals from Ukraine. It has also set up 24×7 control centres to assist in the evacuation of Indians through the border crossing points with Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovak Republic. A Twitter handle, ‘OpGanga Helpline’, has also been dedicated to the mission, where all information regarding evacuation process and advisories of embassies are shared to keep everyone up-to-date.

It would be recalled that India operated its first evacuation flight under “Operation Ganga” and brought back 219 Indians from Romania’s capital Bucharest to Mumbai on Saturday evening. The second evacuation flight carrying 250 nationals landed in Delhi on Sunday. The third flight evacuated 240 Indians from Hungarian capital Budapest, whereas the fourth and fifth flight flew 198 and 249 more passengers from Bucharest to Delhi. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the sixth flight under Operation Ganga left for Delhi from Budapest with 240 Indian nationals on Monday. Even as Air India flights were being used to carry out the rescue initiative, Spicejet, Indigo and Air India Express have now joined the mission.

The government said that Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, and Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Puri, Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiradtiya Scindia, and Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and Civil Aviation General V K Singh will be heading out soon and will be visiting as special envoys of the Indian government.

This move comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday his government is “working day and night” to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine.

“Wherever there is trouble, we left no stone unturned to bring our citizens back,” Modi added.
Argued from the foregoing backdrop, it is not an exaggeration to say that the level of care or concern a country shows to its citizens is directly proportional to the level of patriotism she gets from them, and that there is an urgent need for Nigeria to learn from all the efforts taken by India to evacuate her citizens, particularly the students, from Ukraine.

Looking at how alacritous India and committed India has been since her citizens were reported to be stranded in Ukraine, it is not surprising that a UK-based international research data and analytics group, YouGov, has in a recent Survey titled “Most Patriotic Countries 2022”, stated that respondents in groups of people from 19 countries around the world were asked whether they believe they live “in the best country in the world,” and that their answer determined which were the most patriotic. As provided in its findings, the top ten most patriotic countries (based on what percentage answered “yes”) are: The United States (41%), India (35%), Australia (34%), the United Arab Emirates (27%), Saudi Arabia (25%), and Thailand (25%). Other countries rated by the data and analytics group are Philippines (15%), Indonesia (14%), The United Kingdom (13%) and Denmark (13%).

Based on the YouGov survey, India is the second most patriotic country, with 35% of its respondents answering “yes” to “My country is the best country in the world,” and 32% believe that the US is “better than most countries.”

On the presentation of this issue before some colleagues in the newsroom, not few of them unanimously agreed that the level of patriotism in our nation is fast waning. Two of the reasons they adduced as the causes of the retrogressive development cannot be farfetched as they noted that the level of insecurity in the country is getting worse, and that people are no more patriotic because the governments seemingly do not invest in their lives. This is currently been demonstrated as the Federal Government is unjustifiably dilly-dallying over the evacuation of more than 1,500 Nigerian citizens, mostly student, stranded in Ukraine. This is as not few countries are swimming against the tide of war-risk to evacuate their citizens. It is unfortunate that Nigerians are still issuing Press Statements that may likely not translate to action.

Against the foregoing backdrop, why would Nigerians not be unpatriotic? After all, it is a trite fact that what a given country is doing, or has done for its citizens is determinant of how deep or fervent the level of patriotism citizens of such country will exude at any given time.

Without over flogging this issue in this context, it is expedient to urge the federal government of Nigeria, and its entire representatives in foreign affairs matters as related to Ukraine to hit the ground running by learning from India, or emulating her, and eschew the issuance of countless press releases over the evacuation of Nigerians stranded in Ukraine. In fact, it is high time the federal government learned from India’s ‘Operation Ganga’ and her alacritous evacuation pf her citizens from Ukraine