It seems someone is taking her ministry rather seriously. Probably one of the best Cabinet Ministers of the incumbent government of Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj, the Minister of External Affairs, who has been a ‘super heroine’ for those stranded in countries outside India, has once again made India proud, when she announced the rescue of an Indian woman, Judith D’Souza, who worked for an Afghan NGO before she was abducted by unidentified assailants in Kabul.
Just yesterday, at around 6:10 p.m., Sushma Swaraj tweeted news that was both surprising and delighting. She tweeted:-
I have spoken to Judith. She is reaching Delhi this evening. Ambassador @VohraManpreet is accompanying her.
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 23, 2016
Yes, Judith D’Souza, the very woman who was kidnapped by unidentified assailants at gunpoint in Afghanistan, on the night of 9th June, is now safe and sound, and is returning to India today by evening (I don’t know the exact time), accompanied by Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Manpreet Vohra.
For those who don’t know who this woman is, Judith is a Kolkata born entrepreneur, working in Afghanistan as a Senior Technical Adviser (Gender) at the Aga Khan Foundation in Kabul, the Afghan capital.
Educated at University of Mumbai and having worked previously as an Independent at the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation in India, Judith was kidnapped at gun point by unidentified assailants on the night of 9th Of June, 2016, just as she was returning late night from her work. As per the police sources, Judith, along with her driver and security guard, were forced into another car, and taken to an undisclosed location, where the apparently masked assailants let the driver and the security guard off, taking Judith away. While details of the incident are yet to come out, the basic disclosures have revealed that Judith was kidnapped for ransom by local gangsters, and not, as feared by some, by the ruthless terrorists from the Taliban group. In a nation, where once Indians were abducted and brutally murdered on a spree by the Talibani terrorists, the abduction was enough to terrify the Indians back here.
Judith’s parents wrote a poignant letter to Honb. PM of India, Shri Narendra Modi, who entrusted the task, as was expected, to the Ministry of External Affairs, who sprang into action, as soon as the news spread like wild fire. After Judith was rescued, her brother thanked the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian government for the assistance provided. Judith ’s fatherFather Denzel D’ Souza and mother Lawrence along with Sister Agnes are equally delighted. To quote Miss Agnes, ‘We are grateful to the Indian government for bringing back my sister Judith.’
However, this is not the first time that Sushma Swaraj the ‘Super Heroine’ has won the hearts of the Indians, both in India and abroad.
Once a budding criminal lawyer, she joined hands with her nationalist husband in defending the saviors of democracy during the dark days of the Emergency, she joined the Narendra Modi government as the Ministry of External Affairs, on 26th May 2014, when Narendra Modi took oath as the 15th Prime Minister of India. Besides, she also holds the record of being the youngest Cabinet minister ever.
Many critics wrote Sushma Swaraj off initially, because of the preference of Narendra Modi over her for the post of the Prime Minister. However, with the rescue of the Indians stranded abroad, whether it be the 46 nurses held hostage in Tikrit, Iraq, by the Islamic State terrorists, or be it the magnanimous evacuation of more than 4000 Indians from Yemen, under ‘Operation Rahat’, Sushma Swaraj has proved everybody wrong. Even though she was unceremoniously dragged into a controversy over asking the British High Commission to allegedly provide no objection, if exiled entrepreneur Lalit Modi asks for travel documents to enable his wife’s heart surgery, she has carried on with her job rather well. She has no bias for anyone, whether it be a techie Judith, or a poor 12 year old Sonu, whose rescue she arranged for from Bangladesh, where he had been trafficked to. It was only her, as well as India’s bad luck, that the Ministry could not rescue the poor girl, Bangladesh based Indo American student Tarishi Jain, who was brutally hacked down by blood thirsty ISIS cannibals at the Dhaka attacks on the Artisan Bakery.
More recently, when famous actor Akshay Kumar, who immortalized the historic evacuation of over 170000 Indians from war torn Kuwait of the 1990s through the magnanimous biopic, ‘Airlift’, tweeted to Sushma Swaraj, to look into the hostile situation of South Sudan, where over 620 Indians. Assuring him to relax, Sushma donned the avatar of the superheroine, and entrusting the task to the ex Army General and a dauntless politician, General (Retd.) Vijay Kumar Singh, she arranged for their successful evacuation, under ‘Operation Sankat Mochan’. If that’s enough, Sushma Swaraj additionally makes sure the sportspersons, who are representing India, are attended to, in case they have any glitches. Following series of tweets only makes this case stronger:-
Thus, Sushma Swaraj helped Abhinav Bindra and his coach magnanimously, asking only for an Olympic gold medal in return, and some idiots say, ‘What has this government done for India?’
On an honest note, if nothing else, then Sushma Swaraj is a true ‘Sankat Mochak’ for any Indian who is troubled or stranded abroad. Just make a tweet to her, and she will be all out, ready to help you, and make sure your problem is solved. No matter what happens, there is one External minister India will always be proud of, and that is Mrs. Sushma Sharma Swaraj.
Source:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susma_Swaraj
https://in.linkedin.com/in/judth-d-souza-b070994