Ukraine crisis & the appalling naivety of Opposition in India

As Russia has ramped up attack on Ukraine and its forces are at the gate of Kyiv and Kharkiv and other areas, attacking military infrastructure, nuclear facility and there is nonstop shelling, there is total confusion and panic among all the Indians stranded in the war zone. They are witnessing destruction in front of their eyes and are hiding in bunkers and underground metro stations without enough food and water.

On the other hand, the world is wondering how the war would shape up and affect the world and are assessing the perils of letting aggression triumph. The questions confronting all at the moment are: "Is the world on the edge of abyss? Has the era of wars begun?"

This fear is not unfounded as Russia is threatening to use nuclear weapons and has pounded Ukraine capital Kyiv and second biggest city Kharkiv as well as Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. It has taken over control of Zaporizhzhia in the south eastern part. While the Russian soldiers are in control of the facility outside, the inside operations are being controlled by the Ukrainians. The world has come closer to nuclear war, but still our politicians do not agree.

All that one sees around is debris, destruction and despair. Many people including thousands of Indian students pursuing medical education have sought shelter in underground metro stations. People did not expect such a full-on assault. A 21-year-old Naveen Shekarappa of Karnataka lost his life when a missile attack took place in Kharkiv while he had gone out to buy some food.

The Government of India has launched 'Operation Ganga' to evacuate the Indian students from all places including Sumy where fierce fight is on. Sumy and Kharkiv are totally cut off and the situation there is extremely tense. Though Russian President Vladimir Putin has assured India of a safe passage for students via Russian border, it has not materialised. It was a hellscape in Ukraine.

Amidst such grave situation, at a time when they should have kept their mouths shut and stood by the government, some of our politicians have once again displayed their amateurish and condemnable attitude. Rahul Gandhi called upon the Union government to draw up a strategy for the safe evacuation of all stranded Indians which is easier said than done. He said in a tweet that conditions are worsening yet GOI is not taking effective steps: "Country needs action, PM only provides distraction."

AICC spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "Modi Government has abandoned our young in Ukraine. Only photo-op, no action." He attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for campaigning in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and asked whose responsibility was it to bring all Indians back safely. "Modi Ji, what would you say to the family in Karnataka which lost their child due to lack of sensitivity of your government? In the midst of Ukraine-Russia war, the lives of around 20,000 Indians are in danger every moment and you are engaged in electioneering." He alleged the BJP government at the Centre "has no evacuation plan." Another Congress leader Ragini Nayak alleged that it was due to the Modi government's "inaction and insensitivity" that an Indian student died in Ukraine.

It is a matter of shame that a party which calls itself to be over 100-years-old, a party that claims to have spearheaded the freedom movement to free the country from the shackles of British Empire, a party which ruled the country for over six decades, is asking questions which sound naïve and has no solutions to offer.

In the past on several occasions leaders such as P V Narasimha Rao and Pranab Mukherjee not only used to tear into the government policies but used to offer an alternative strategy. Whether the government of the day accepted it or not is a different issue. But leaders of those days used to come with solutions and there were times when the government used to accept some of them.

Unfortunately, we now have leaders who are suffering from ego problems and have lost the capacity to offer solutions. Another malice in the society or shall I call it a new fad is the culture of hiring strategists who think they are the ultimate species endowed with all the intelligence. Most of them in reality are cut off from the ground situation and believe in using some fancy words. The neo politicians like Rahul Gandhi pick up those fancy words and try to make fun of the government of the day. The others despite being septuagenarians thump the tables and keep praising their leader. They have lost the boldness to call a spade a spade.

Well, for a moment if we agree for the sake of discussion that the Modi government did not have a strategy for safe evacuation, then what prevented the party that ruled the country for so long from coming up with suggestions? Maybe it could have helped the government rescue all by now.

It's easy to sit on the bank of a turbulent sea and give instructions on how to swim. It is the swimmer who knows what the real situation is. Ukraine is under attack from three sides. A majority of our youth are in places like Kharkiv and Kyiv which are about 1,000 km from Poland border. It is not possible to arrange any transport from the bunkers, where the students are stranded, to the border areas. There are few trains and the rush to escape from these places by local Ukrainians is so high they are not allowing Indians to board trains. Road travel is not possible as no transport is available, and no one is sure of safety even if one manages to hire a bus or a car.

Shelling with cruise rockets and missiles is on. Russia is non- cooperative. The Indian embassy does not have manpower to meet such eventualities nor do they have adequate resources. In such circumstances, one should not expect the army to give you roses and bid goodbye to the vehicles on road. It was in such a situation that the GOI launched 'Operation Ganga' and evacuated a majority of the students.

Well, the evacuation process is underway and only a couple of thousand people are yet to be brought home safe and let us hope that every single Indian student and others would be evacuated safely.

It is time for the opposition parties, particularly regional party leaders who are dreaming of forming a national alternative and are promising moon to the people, to first apologise to the country for their failure to come up with a proper and practical policy on education. They should apologise to the people for having allowed large-scale commercialisation and greed to make money by private educational institutions which is resulting in thousands of students going abroad to countries like Ukraine to pursue higher studies. The process of admission into Indian medical colleges is very difficult and expensive.

The leaders of regional parties, the Chief Ministers during elections go on sanctioning medical colleges for every district. But what is the use if they don't have good faculty and facilities and they turn into money-spinning machines. What's more most of these institutions are owned by people in politics, MPs, MLAs, MLCs and ministers.

I am sure no strategist will advise the regional party leaders in the race to rule the country to moot a policy that would stop the migration of students to other countries. Instead, they will come up with ideas of divide-and-rule and the leaders in a hurry will fall prey to such ideas. This does not mean I am supporting the BJP nor does it mean that they have brought positive and revolutionary changes in the country since 2014. No, they, too, believe in the same divide-and-rule policy. They, too, should be held equally guilty for not making education easily accessible to all. There was hardly any occasion when this crucial issue was discussed either in the Parliament or respective state assemblies. Our honourable members only know how to stall the proceedings but do not think of discussing such issues.

I am not sure whether or not the BJP or other political parties would turn this crisis into an opportunity because politics have not reached that level of maturity. The focus should be on how to save the future of the students who have been brought back. What measures the government will take to see that they get admission in the medical colleges, without ducking under some weird rules. Who made these rules? Is it not the legislative bodies like Parliament and Assemblies? If the Constitution can be amended over 100 times why not amend these rules? It's time the quota system and fixing of rates by management for seats and the different tests for becoming eligible to get a seat in medical colleges should be done away with immediately.

Congress party leaders who said they would pose a series of questions to the government on evacuation need to answer why such a messy situation has arisen. It is a matter of shame for the country that our political executive both at the Centre and in the states never bothered to focus on this issue.

Whether it is the BJP or regional parties, they should stop thinking of giving freebies and instead come up with practical solutions so that people will become self-sufficient and can contribute to the growth of economy of the country. They should tell the so-called strategists to come up with innovative ideas to improve the quality of human resources and simplify the rules, and not suggest how to divide people on the basis of caste or community for the sake of votes.