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Anurag Thakur meets Ukraine evacuees, praises PM Modi
Indian students flown back from neighbouring countries of Ukraine were on Tuesday received by information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur, who congratulated them on their safe return.
Indian students flown back from neighbouring countries of Ukraine were on Tuesday received by information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur, who congratulated them on their safe return.
Thakur commended the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indian authorities in foreign countries for executing Operation Ganga, which seeks to return stranded Indian citizens home from countries neighbouring Ukraine.
“Firstly, I would like to felicitate the Indians who have returned safely from the war zone,” Thakur said. “I would also like to express my gratitude to respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, who provided every possible facility to the students returning to India despite the ongoing war.”
“Modi ji spoke to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine and Union ministers also went to neighbouring countries to coordinate the evacuation process,” the minister said.
India is now globally respected thanks to the country’s 130 crore population that chose Modi to lead the country. “Whether it was Sudan or Afghanistan or Ukraine, Modiji has successfully evacuated our citizens,” Thakur said.
Touching upon the exit poll projections for Uttar Pradesh that predict a win for the Bharatiya Janata Party, Thakur said: “Yogi ji (chief minister Yogi Adityanath) implemented multiple yojanas (schemes) for the citizens of UP.”
Listing several initiatives launched by the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state, Thakur said they resulted in UP’s population again choosing the “lotus flower”, the electoral symbol of the BJP. The results to the assembly elections will be declared on March 10.
Thakur’s praise of the evacuation came in for criticism by the opposition Congress party.
“This obsession with all PR and no timely and substantive intervention has led to a situation where our students had to walk for hundreds of miles to reach the borders of Ukraine,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said. “Where’s the safe corridor for those stuck in Sumy? Will Anurag Thakur ask the kin of those still stuck there to say Narendra Modi zindabad?”
Operation Ganga, launched on February 22, has overseen the return home of more than 17,100 Indians from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries like Romania, Poland, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia, according to the government. As many as 83 evacuation flights were operated to fly back Indian citizens, the foreign ministry said on Monday.
