Caught in a web of its own making, after the portrayal of an alarming picture of thousands of Indians on the verge of starvation in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has now got into a damage control mode.
On Saturday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj felt compelled to personally call a few of the Kerala MPs, including former Union Minister of State Shashi Tharoor, following a furore over the ‘denial of diplomatic visa’ for the state’s Local Administration Minister K.T.Jaleel to visit Saudi Arabia. Mr. Jaleel was deputed by the state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for firsthand knowledge of the situation as a substantial percentage of Indians in the Saudi kindgom are from Kerala.
The disclosure on Twitter by Ms. Swaraj on July 30 that the number of Indian workers facing food crisis is over 10,000, and not 800 as is being reported by a section of the media, set off alarm bells in Kerala. Her decision to rush her deputy, General (Retd.) V.K. Singh to Jeddah, left the state with no choice but to be seen as being pro-active.
As anxiety mounted in the state, the Chief Minister took to Twitter to announce: “10% of our employed population are immigrants. Decided to send our Minister Dr. K. T. Jaleel to KSA to allay the fears of their families”. However, by then, the MEA had realised that the Indian decision to dispatch General (Retd.) Singh had not gone down well with Riyadh. It pleaded with the Kerala government not to press for the diplomatic visa for its minister to visit Saudi Arabia.
A dejected Kerala CM tweeted, “Central Govt’s decision to not allow our Minister to travel to KSA is unfortunate. The state’s opinion is that it should not have been so”.
On the same day Mr. Tharoor had tweeted twice on the subject. “Deplorable behaviour by @MEAIndia. Why shouldn't affected state send own minister 2 see 2 welfare of its citizens?... Unless @SushmaSwaraj intervenes, Minister Jaleel should go anyway, with an ordinary passport. Is this cooperative federalism?” The issue became a political battle in Kerala with the BJP on one side and the rest of the parties on the other.
On Friday, the MEA fielded its spokesperson Vikas Swaroop to limit the fallout, and on Saturday Ms. Swaraj herself got into the act.
After Ms. Swaraj called him, Mr. Tharoor tweeted: “@SuhmaSwaraj thankyou for your gracious call explaining the reasons for denial of a diplomatic passport for KeralaMinister Jaleel 2go2 SA..@SushmaSwaraj I now fully understand the reasons &hope they have been conveyed in same way to KeralaGovt. Public explanation wld be useful”.
