Vande Bharat and Operation Samudra Setu

WHY IN NEWS?

The government plans to operate flights to bring back Indians stranded abroad under the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’, while the Navy has launched ‘Operation Samudra Setu‘ (sea bridge) to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas.

VANDE BHARAT MISSION

• Under Vande Bharat Mission the government plans to operate flights to bring home thousands of Indian nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown.
• External Affairs Ministry has urged the stranded individuals to stay in touch with the Indian embassies in their respective countries.
• The mission is to be executed in phased manner and plans to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals stranded abroad in its first phase.
• Flights will repatriate citizens from countries like UK, US, Middle-East among other nations.
• The maximum number of flights will be sent from Kerala followed by Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

OPERATION SAMUDRA SETU

• The Indian Navy has launched ‘Operation Samudra Setu’ (sea bridge) to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas.
• Naval ships Jalashwa and Magar are enroute to evacuate people from port of Male.

INDIA’S PREVIOIUS EXPERIENCE IN EVACUATION

• India has conducted several large-scale evacuations in modern times particularly in 1990 above one lakh Indians were airlifted from Kuwait during the onset of Gulfwar.
• Operation Raahat was an operation of the Indian Armed Forces to evacuate Indian citizens and foreign nationals from Yemen, during the 2015 military intervention by Saudi Arabia and its allies in the country.

A TAKE ON THE MISSIONS

• Priority will be given to those in distress, including labourers, persons with medical emergency, pregnant women, elderly etc.
• Passengers will be charged as usual with no specific reductions in ticket cost.
• Medical screening of passengers would be done before taking the flight and only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel.
• Those arriving by repatriation flights will be screened and put under 14-day quarantine.

• Estimates show that there are between 10 -20 million Indian citizens abroad. In the Gulf countries alone, 300,000 Indians have registered to return.
• The pay-per-use policy is criticised by many as an attempt to reduce the financial burden on the government’s coffers and repatriation flights will probably inject of funds into the struggling Air India.

CONCLUSION

• Plight of migrants travelling from various urban areas to their home towns having been a painful picture of the lockdown. State authorities are failing to provide safe travel of these vulnerable population back their home.
• It is criticised that by charging citizens stuck abroad the actual flight cost, the government is seeking to pre-empt criticism about giving special treatment to the diaspora but not taking care of internal migrants.
• The government is also facing many challenges - it is facing the health crisis of COVID-19, economic and resource crunch, now it has to face the tough challenge of prioritising evacuation, quarantine and management of influx of its citizens from abroad.

Practice Question

Q. The Vande Bharat Mission is one of the largest evacuation mission of modern times. Critically examine the challenges and significance of the Mission?