Senior Congress leader and former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy paid tributes to former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who passed away in New Delhi on Tuesday night. He recalled with gratitude the key role played by her in bringing 42 Keralite nurses back from strife-torn Iraq in 2014 even as the situation in the region was dangerous.
The help and support extended by the then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj played a huge role in securing the nurses from Kerala, Chandy, who was the CM then, recalled while talking to Manorama Online.
Narrating the incidents in the run-up to the dangerous mission, Chandy said: "Gyanesh Kumar IAS, Kerala's representative in Delhi, called me around 1.30 am. He was on board a special flight to Iraq and had used a satellite phone to contact me. He said the plane was barred permission to land in Iraq and the pilot was about to return. I was stunned to hear this. After marathon discussions for three days in Delhi, it was decided to send the special plane to Iraq. I had returned to Kerala after getting assurance on this. The problem arose due to some lapses.
"When Gyanesh called me up in the night, there was no one with me. I didn't know whom to turn to for help. Then I thought of Sushmaji. It was past 1.30 am. But I did not pause to think and dialled her number. She picked up the phone and she was also surprised to know the sudden turn of events. She said everything was taken care of. 'Don't worry. Everything will happen as planned,' she assured me,” Chandy narrated.
“Sushmaji then immediately contacted the Indian Embassy in Kuwait. As there was no Indian embassy in Iraq, the permission for the plane to land was to be granted from the one in Kuwait. Sushmaji called back in just 15 minutes to say that the problem has been resolved. I immediately called up Gyanesh and informed him. The flight could land in Iraq and it returned to Kerala with the nurses," Chandy recounted.
Earlier, Chandy had held detailed talks with Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi as the situation in the Middle East was alarming. He came to know about the plight of the Keralite nurses even as rumours of 39 Punjabi labourers killed in Iraq were swirling. There was no government or police in Iraq. Conflicts had torn the Gulf country apart. All the senior officials were summoned and the situation was assessed. The marathon talks went on for three days and all possible escape routes were scrutinised. There were no flight services from Iraq. An attempt to rescue the nurses and bring them home via ships appeared to be dangerous. "The Kerala government then proposed to send a special flight. Sushamji then immediately contacted the Air India and made the provisions for it," Chandy explained.
The then BJP minister also immediately agreed to the state government's demand to send two representatives from Kerala.
"Because of all this help, we could save those 42 angels and bring them back to the Kerala soil," Chandy said. Subsequently, reports emerged that terrorists had killed and buried the Punjabi workers.
As Chandy recounted about his interactions with the BJP minister and her determination to help those in peril at any cost, the differences in their political ideologies took a back seat.
First meet
Chandy reckons the deceased leader as a strong leader who listened to the masses and found effective solutions to their problems. He recalled that his first meeting with her was in 1977 when she she visited a residential complex where labourers who had a miserable stay in the Chengalchoola Colony in Thiruvananthapuram were resettled by the AK Antony government in the late 1970s.
"She was then the Cabinet Minister, Labour and Employment, in the Haryana government. I was then part of the A K Antony government in Kerala and was in charge of the Labour Department. The keys for residences were handed over by the CM A K Antony itself on October 2, 1978. He had laid the foundation stone for the project on October 2, 1977. The rehabilitation of slum dwellers was a new concept then. This created headlines across the country. Soon enough Sushmaji called from Haryana. She said that she liked the project and wanted to personally visit the site," the AICC General Secretary recalled.
“Sushmaji came down to Thiruvananthapuram and held talks with its beneficiaries directly. I later came to know that she had kickstarted similar projects in Haryana,” Chandy concluded.
