March 15, 2022
Sushmita Dev asks whether it was ‘evacuation when students were asked to leave Ukraine on their own
Mr. Deputy Chairman, Sir, I personally thank you for the compliment but I prefer to be referred to as Dev. Sir, on a very serious matter, today, the hon. Minister of External Affairs has given a very, very detailed reply. These are the moments when the entire nation should stand together across party lines because our citizens who are stranded there and are under such grave danger in an area of conflict needed us to be united. The hon. Chief Minister of West Bengal, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, wrote to the Prime Minister of India expressing her solidarity towards the entire exercise, which was a big challenge. We want to thank all the officers, all the pilots, all the missions who helped rescue the students and other citizens from Ukraine. If the students could risk their lives and stay on there for the sake of their education, I join all my colleagues in expressing some concern over their future. I hope that the Government of India will look into it. I have a specific question, Sir. On 15th of February, there was a precautionary advisory that was issued to say, please leave the area of conflict if it is possible. The question I want to ask is: Does an
advisory to ask the Indian nationals to come back on a precautionary basis by commercial flights qualifies as evacuation, as the word has been used here? Sir, sometimes clarifications also help the Government in clarifying to the nation and also clarifying controversies. So, when you use the word ‘evacuation’, please be clear. One, that the
Government or none of the machineries they used actually reached the conflict areas because we saw the students walking to the borders. A precautionary measure which is asking you to leave on commercial flight because there was only one Air India flight, does that amount to evacuation by the Government?
