Evacuating 22,500 Indian nationals from a war-torn country is no easy task. But the central government’s ‘Operation Ganga’ – one of the biggest rescue operations conducted anywhere in the world last year after the Ukraine war began on February 24, 2022 – could not have been possible without excellent statesmanship, smooth coordination on the ground and a little help from Indian friends settled outside.
History TV18’s original documentary, The Evacuation: Operation Ganga, which premiered on Saturday (June 17) showed how the Indian diaspora settled in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania – stepped in to feed, clothe and house students being evacuated from these routes. And, in doing so, espousing the age-old value of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam meaning ‘the world is one family’.
In the most challenging of times immediately after Russia invaded its neighbour, India had to care for its large student population stranded in Ukraine waiting to return home. Besides government efforts led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, top ministers and Indian embassies, the country found solace in its diaspora.
“Wherever in the world an Indian is, despite the colour of their passports having changed, they have a blood relation with their country… We are all connected by blood to India," said PM Modi in the documentary.
“I made some 160-plus calls to hotels and motels in the region. When I managed to get in touch with a particular hotelier, he thought I’d lost it when I told him that I needed 250 mattresses to be arranged in 24 hours. But, he understood the situation and was kind enough to arrange things the way we wanted," said Amit Lath, vice-president, Indo Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry, talking about how he made arrangements to shelter Indian students before they could be evacuated on flights.
Chandramohan Nallur, business relations director, Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce, said: “I called a company and asked them if they could arrange roughly 3,000 SIM cards; they sent 20,000 of them with free internet, and not just for the Indians but for everyone crossing over."
Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was sent to Romania to oversee the rescue operations, said, “All our citizens and others in those countries, who were sitting up and cooking meals, arranging buses for transport, tending to students’ medical needs – it was on a scale that India has probably never seen before. Our NRIs really came to the aid of our students."
In continuation with the spirit of India, Modi personally got in touch with leaders of spiritual organisations. “When the PM called, there was a deep concern in his voice; he requested us to set up relief camps as soon as possible in border towns of any of these countries neighbouring Ukraine because thousands of students were trapped. We immediately went into mobilising our force to set up the relief camp," said Brahmaviharidas Swami, international coordinator and spokesperson of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who went to Hungary during Operation Ganga, said: “Full marks to the social assistance providers. One’s heart is filled with such gratitude and humility; they were feeding people, no matter what numbers they came in. Each one of them – there was a case of a restaurant owner from Vienna, a Sikh man, who came with his family and was serving 600 meals a day."
Union minister Gen VK Singh (Retd), who was sent as a special envoy to Poland, said there were people from all kinds of organisations – from the gurdwara and temple in Warsaw to Art of Living and Swaminarayan followers. “We even got Arcelor Mittal’s set up out there," he added.
Scindia added: “Wipro, Infosys, Sun Pharma and a number of these companies came to the fore."
Aryan Thakur, a medical student who was rescued from Ukraine, said, “There were thousands of students and long queues at the border towns in Ukraine. Some students were even putting their own clothes into a bonfire to stay warm as it was really cold."
Nagma Mallick, Indian ambassador to Poland and Lithuania, said: “Many of them were only wearing a pair of jeans and a hoodie, they didn’t have anything to eat. It was an extremely worrying situation."
A student said there was continuous bombing and they were not safe at all and were mostly putting up in bunkers. Nimeesha Lumba, a medical student from Delhi, said: “The first bunker I went to was extremely congested."
Mohd Mahtab Raza, a medical student, from Bihar’s Champaran said: “There were water, electricity lines inside those bunkers and it was suffocating to be in them."
Operation Ganga, which began on February 26, 2022, was successful and historic from many angles as well as a remarkable example of how a government delivers under the most trying circumstances.
However, India faced a major loss as well. A 21-year-old medical student, Naveen Shekharappa, was killed in shelling in Kharkiv on March 1. Among those caught in the crossfire was language student Harjot Singh in Kyiv, who was grievously injured but evacuated on the last flight home in an Indian Air Force C17 transport aircraft.
Modi said when students were getting out of Ukraine, all the facilities were available to them and they were allowed to travel safely and reach borders, whenever they showed the Indian flag.
“Har Ghar Tiranga happened in Ukraine, and wherever the flag was visible in the war-torn country, it was flying and safe passage was ensured," Scindia said.
“More than the colour of the skin, the colour of the flag was powerful. This whole experience taught Indian students the power of the Tricolour," PM Modi said. “No other country did this for their citizens."
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