The Left parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday got together to demand that the two Indian children, now growing up in a foster home in Norway, be allowed to return to India immediately even as New Delhi sent a special envoy to Oslo to speed up the process of handing them over to their uncle.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, CPI leader Annie Raja said the matter would be raised in Parliament on the very first day. “They are neither orphans nor stateless children. They are Indian children,” they said.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin had tweeted: “Special envoy Madhusudhan Ganapathi has arrived in Oslo where he will meet [Norwegian] Foreign Minister and other officials.” “External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna's message to his Norwegian counterpart will be conveyed by the special envoy today [Monday],” he added.
Grandparents of the children — Abhigyan and Aishwarya – sat on a dharna near the Chanakyapuri police station in New Delhi to impress upon the Norwegian government, through its embassy here, to hand over the children before their visa expires on March 8. “We want our children back home. . The Norwegian government should not delay the process,” said grandfather Manatosh Chakraborty.
Under an agreement arrived at last month following an eight month-long custody row, the custody of three-year-old Abhigyan and his one-year-old sister Aishwarya are to be given to their uncle, Arunabhash, who lives in Kolkata. However, the Norwegian Child Welfare Services last week said it would take a decision on this issue by early March. It said that only the court could decide on their custody.
The Norwegian government is reportedly planning to extend the visa of the children beyond March 8 and India will have to ensure that they are handed over before that date. “Norway will have to withdraw the case from the court. It cannot act as a law unto itself,” Ms. Karat said.
Ms. Swaraj said everyone was doing their best to bring the children back to India. “The entire country is with them. There is no politics. All parties and citizens are with them,” she said.
