If you are evacuated from a warzone, what would you feel? A sense of relief, gratitude, and gratefulness towards your country, right? Well, this is what we think. But the reaction of some of the students evacuated from Ukraine tells a totally different story.
“What to do with this (rose)”?
Take this one student who spoke to NDTV, for instance. After being evacuated from the war-torn country of Ukraine, the student said, “We received help only after we crossed the border into Hungary. There was no help before that. Whatever we did, we did on our own. Ten of us formed a group and boarded a train. The train was packed.”
He added, “Local people helped us. No one misbehaved with us. It’s true that some students faced harassment at the Poland border. Our government is responsible for that. If it had taken action at the right time, we would not face so many problems. The US was the first to ask its citizens to leave.”
And then, the evacuated student asked an intriguing question. Holding up the rose given to him after landing in India, he asked, “Now that we are here, we are being given this. What is the point? What will we do with this? What would our families do if something happened to us there?”
Also Read: Who can save you in Ukraine? Indian flag!
“Flying out of Romania” is no evacuation
Ukraine is a proper warzone and it had closed its airspace to civilian aircraft shortly after Russia launched a military invasion into the country. So, India obviously couldn’t have flown in its aircraft to airlift stranded students back to India. This is why New Delhi coordinated with Ukraine’s neighbours.
Yet, one of the students speaking to NDTV, “I don’t know whether everyone will agree with me, but tell me one thing. We are brought back on a flight from Romania, which is a safe country. So how can you call this evacuation? You should have provided us security in Ukraine. We were in a city that was so dangerous. Someone should have been with us from the embassy to guide us. Nothing was done. The students were just told that you take a bus and go.”
The view was endorsed by the opposition. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Randeep Singh Surjewala even took to Twitter to criticise the government over the issue.
https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1499371091466194948
This brave daughter of India has exposed “Fake PR” of Modi Govt !
As PM, Home Min & Defense Min were busy in election rallies, this was the harrowing experience of our children in #Ukraine .
Do listen 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/5j4JNB42XX
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 3, 2022
However, several Twitter handles later claimed that the evacuated student is actually the daughter of a Congress leader.
Daughter of Congress leader being used for spreading lies about India’s brilliant efforts of rescuing Indian students.
This is really low.. even by the standards of Congress. pic.twitter.com/BuVToS5Iz9
— Gaurav Gautam (Modi Ka Parivar) (@GauravgGautam) March 3, 2022
Daughter of Congress leader.
Thank you NDTV pic.twitter.com/QLJt0FnzlO
— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) March 3, 2022
“The Army should have landed” in Ukraine
Another student said, “Coming to the border and crossing it were the actual problems. Not flying us here on planes.” He added, “(You are) Just giving yourself publicity for bringing us back on planes… That’s not a great thing. The army should have landed the cargo flight there (in Ukraine) and bring the kids.”
Again, the Ukrainian airspace was closed. Remember, Ukraine is a war-torn country. How can the army land in a cargo flight in a warzone?
The fact remains that evacuating citizens from a warzone is a complicated operation that requires intense coordination with foreign governments. If the government managed to streamline the process, the evacuated students can at least show a sense of gratitude towards the country for rescuing them in a crisis situation.