Foreign policy formulation has always been the key to strike partnerships and structure a global hegemony. Perhaps PM Modi in his essential foreign visits has perfectly envisioned and outlined a doctrine of an emerging foreign policy purview. This has been ably supported by Sushma Swaraj but never has the office of foreign ministry assumed so much importance as it has when Sushma Swaraj took the reins of it in her hands. Although making policies is of paramount importance, protection of Indian citizens and diaspora abroad has been her USP. When an effective platform of Twitter is being misused for spreading venom and propaganda, Swaraj has used the same to save and help lives.
And her efforts to do the same has not only extracted praise from the citizens and the media but also the opposition where AAP leader Bhagwant Maan thanked her for rescuing 13 Indians who had been enslaved in Saudi Arabia. Sushma Swaraj and her online presence is a good example of how government and citizens can work directly. From something as small as passport recovery to something as big as saving lives, Swaraj has tried her level best to sort out any situation.
Her Twitter interactions have achieved success en mass on a grander scale like acting on a video which helped rescue 168 Indians trapped in Iraq. It also has helped citizens on a personalized basis when Dev Tamboli’s sister was saved from the clutches of trafficking in UAE.
The endeavor with a personal touch in ensuring the safety of citizens abroad has earned her tremendous respect and it has invigorated even into the heartlands of our nemesis like Pakistan. Recently two Indian clerics Syed Asif Nizami and his nephew Nazim Ali Nizami were reported missing on their entourage to Pakistan. Both had gone to Lahore and reportedly were trapped in Sindh interiors where there is no communication or network. They could not even inform their kin about their location. Pakistani sources somehow believed that they had alleged links with Muttahida Qaumi Movement. They were shifted and offloaded to an undisclosed location for questioning and investigation. Some quarters also revealed about the fact that the clerics were even suspected to be from the network of RAW and its agents.
Ever since their disappearance was noticed, Sushma Swaraj sprang into action in a two-prong mode to save the clerics.
She tweeted about the missing duo which received the necessary coverage to highlight the issue. This was important in context of the fact that people have mysteriously vanished in the past. Pakistan is a hot bed for religious extremism coupled with serpentine network of radical terrorist organizations. Adding to that, the ISI and state intelligence agencies may apprehend people in the name of being spies and this may have pushed the clerics into a deep abyss of uncertainty, had the issue not received the platform of a foreign minister tweeting.
The second aspect was Swaraj taking this matter up directly with Pakistani PM’s advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz regarding the case. She also reiterated and rejected the charge that the clerics had made their way into Pakistan on an unauthorised basis.
This impromptu swinging into action mode breaking the shackles of a typical bureaucratic proceedings was nothing but revolutionary. This also raised the right decibels in the international community. Messing with the Indian community overseas can have a resounding backlash. And Sushma Swaraj has rendered her office into its rightful intent rather than just issuing press statements
This conscious approach by the External Affairs Ministry finally helped in tracing the clerics who returned home safely on Monday at New Delhi. They profusely thanked the Government of India and lauded the efforts made by the foreign ministry in securing their release.
As the news reached of clerics coming back homeland safely, another Indian woman married in Pakistan raised the pitch of her ill treatment to Swaraj which obtained the necessary attention from her and now has led to MEA taking pro active measures to bring her back too.
Foreign Ministry for India in the past has been an instrument to dictate a sluggish ‘Nehruvian’ policy or somebody like Natwar Singh who treated it like any other ministry of sorts to posture and issue condemnations. Nobody is denying the importance of grand standing and pushing for geo political interests. But Sushma Swaraj has given a new dimension to the office of MEA where she even retorted in the Parliament about how the safety of citizens abroad is of prime importance to her in the wake of racial attacks in US. She has in a way become a godmother to millions of Indian abroad.
We always have been awed at the way Israeli govt values life of each of its citizens and avenges resurgently in the wake of a loss of even one soldier or life. Perhaps Sushma Swaraj has demonstrated a similar zeal for the same and has effectively capitulated Foreign Ministry to its never seen avatar.
