© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Two months ago when Sushma Swaraj said goodbye to the Ministry of External Affairs, people were sad to see their ‘favourite minister’ go, and it might explain the shock over her sudden demise Tuesday. Within months of taking charge in 2014, Swaraj made sure that the ministry was a responsive government institution. A system, thus, was put in place where she would respond to distress tweets from Indians stranded across the world.
From reuniting families to helping citizens recover their passports and travel home from war-torn countries, every request for help – whether small or big – was seen and responded to by Swaraj. On more than one occasion her witty tweets and replies to stranger requests went viral.
Here are some notable instances where Swaraj used the microblogging platform to provide aid to people:
With Sushma Swaraj’s help, Pakistani infant arrives in India for treatment
Swaraj made sure she was available to help people in need of medical treatment, even if ties between India and Pakistan weren’t very cordial. She won hearts online across the border after helping four-month-old Pakistani infant, Rohaan, who was in need of urgent medical attention for a heart ailment.
The minister, responding to Rohaan’s father Kanwal Saadik’s appeal for help, granted a medical visa to the child despite restrictions on the same.
After her intervention, Indian Embassy in Pakistan helped the man to reach India for treatment and within a fortnight, the child was treated at Jaypee Hospital in Noida. Expressing gratitude to Swaraj, ANI quoted Saadik as saying: “I appreciate EAM Sushma Swaraj, she helped me a lot.”
Swaraj’s response to a Pakistani girl worried about returning home
Amid tensions that gripped India and Pakistan after the Uri attack and surgical strikes, a delegation of 20 students from Pakistan who had arrived in Chandigarh for the 11th Global Youth Peace Festival was anxious about their safe return.
Swaraj—who had torn into Pakistan in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly—in her response to the girl showed the bitterness between the two nations didn’t need to come in the way of humanitarian action. “Aliya – I was concerned about your well being kyonki betiyan to sabki sanjhi hoti hain” (I was concerned about your well being because one’s daughter is everyone’s daughter).
When she helped a Jodhpur man tie the knot with his fiancée from Karachi
When a young man appealed to Swaraj after his to-be-bride and family faced troubles in getting visas, the minister intervened and helped him. Naresh Tewani from Jodhpur had been engaged to Priya Bachchani from Karachi for three years. The couple was eager to tie the knot in India, but the chances seemed bleak. With time running out, Tewani sought Swaraj’s help and said she was his last hope.
The minister assured help online and kept her promise. The bride and family arrived in India in time for the wedding. Many said it was the best wedding present ever.
Swaraj aids a widowed mother and her baby to return from the US
The external affairs minister had helped a widowed mother and her newborn baby when it came to health insurance and getting the OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) card for the child.
The woman’s family posted a letter addressed to Swaraj on Twitter, in which they wrote about the problems the mother was facing. Her family requested the government to grant a passport and OCI card to the newborn, so that the mother and children could return to India at the earliest. Not surprisingly, the minister came through.
https://twitter.com/Interceptors/status/795988069799247872
Swaraj gets embassy to open on holiday for man
One Twitter user, Sarita Takru, had reached out to Swaraj to inform her that she had lost her husband. The distraught woman added that her only son, who was to perform his father’s last rites, was in the United States but wasn’t able to get a visa because the embassy was closed.
Swaraj immediately swung into action and made sure the embassy worked opened to provide the man with a visa.
When she rescued an officer, wife stuck in Yemen
When the chief officer of an Indian crude oil tanker named ‘Jag Prabha’ was stranded in Yemen’s Aden, he tweeted an SOS to the minister. She ensured he received help, but also reprimanded him for disregarding an advisory.
Swaraj helps woman mugged in Tanzania despite no request
Charanya Kannan, a woman from Chennai who was studying at the Harvard Business School, had a very bad experience when she visited Tanzania for a course on public-private partnerships. The woman, who was there for two weeks with 39 others, was mugged by a biker in her second week in Dar Es Salaam, and lost her passport, phones, cash and credit cards.
Initially, she sought the assistance of an official at Indian Embassy in Tanzania, who told her nothing could be done. She shared the entire experience on a blog and Swaraj read it. The minister asked the woman to name the officer at the Indian High Commission, who had refused to help her.
When she came to the rescue of 29 workers held captive in Saudi Arabia
Swaraj came to the rescue of 29 Telangana workers after she got an SOS tweet from the state’s IT and NRI affairs minister K Taraka Rama Rao about them being held captive. Rao wrote to Swaraj seeking the repatriation of the workers.
The minister directed the embassy to act on it and ensure the workers reached home safely.
Swaraj responds to SOS from Yemen, welcomes baby
When Indians stranded in war-torn Yemen took to social media to seek help, Swaraj rose to the occasion and assured everyone that they would rescued promptly. India airlifted its nationals from strife-torn Yemen after getting permission from authorities to fly from Sana’a.
When a Yemeni woman married to an Indian urged the minister to rescue her 8-month-old baby, she replied saying they will be evacuated and brought back to India. She then welcome the mother and child back home:
Sushma Swaraj helps a couple get passports for differently-abled daughters
When a couple – Rallapalli Rama Subba Rao and Subbalakshmi – from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh launched an online petition talking about the difficulty their polio-afflicted daughters faced in appearing at the passport office, Swaraj responded.
Swaraj ensured the two girls didn’t have to go anywhere and their passports were delivered to their home.
