India steps up medical diplomacy with Gulf to pre-empt exodus

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 13

India has stepped up its medical diplomacy with Gulf countries in order to stave off the possibility of a mass exodus of its expatriate population that would make its evacuations from Wuhan and elsewhere pale in comparison, said sources.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior diplomats have been constantly in touch with all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that together host over 50 lakh Indians and send back remittances of over $ 40 billion every year. In fact, sources draw attention to the PM speaking with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin-Salman as early as March 17.

When Indian missions reported signs of restiveness in the expatriate community, the Prime Minister conducted Gulf diplomacy in two stages. While remaining constantly in touch with Saudi Arabia, the dominant power in the six-member GCC, the Prime Minister spoke with leaders of Abu Dhabi and Qatar on March 26. This was followed up by phone calls in quick succession to the rulers of Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.

Indian workers in most of these countries live cheek-by-jowl in hutments and with a rudimentary public health infrastructure in all the Arab countries, sources here apprehend a clamour to get out if there is a turn in Covid situation in areas where they live. That is the reason for India stepping up medical diplomacy. A 15-member Indian medical team is already in Kuwait to train its medical staff and thus increase its capability to independently handle the outbreak. India has also lined up several of these countries as the first recipients of hydrocholorquine (HCQ), a drug that keeps infections among health staff at bay and also helps some Covid-affected cases.

India’s intensification of engagement in the medical field is to stave off the bigger fear of workers in Gulf countries straining to get back home in case the environment is not conducive for their stay. To put the magnitude of the task in perspective, sources pointed to the much self-acclaimed Operation Rahat that led to the evacuation of less than 5,000 Indians from Libya in 2015. “That many Indians live in just one of the hundreds of settlements in the Gulf countries,” the source added.

If Indian expatriates in the Gulf start feeling insecure, a better point of reference would be Air India’s single-handed evacuation of over 1.70 lakh citizens in 1990 due to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. The collapse of the remittance economy at that time had contributed to India’s 1991 economic crises.