The tragic death of a student from Karnataka’s Haveri district, Naveen Gyanagoudar, in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as a result of shelling highlights the plight of thousands of Indian students trapped in the war zone. It has made the terror and misery of a faraway war real for India and made the need to evacuate all Indian nationals much more urgent. It has also given rise to a debate on the government’s efforts to ensure their safe evacuation in time. The 21-year-old medical student was killed in shelling when he stepped out of a bunker to buy groceries. Reports from the main cities of Ukraine where there are large numbers of students and their phone calls to parents and others back home have underlined the desperate situation in which they are caught. More troubling reports keep coming in as days pass. The distress and anxiety of the students is shared by their kin and others in the country.
A major effort is under way with Air India and other airlines bringing back many students in batches from countries that border Ukraine. India has expressed its concerns over the safety of its citizens and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky and leaders of neighbouring countries. India has ‘strongly and emphatically’ asked Ukraine and Russia to create ‘urgent safe passage’ for its nationals. Evacuation of people caught in conflict zones is a major challenge as communications and logistics are difficult and evacuation efforts can themselves endanger lives. There are reports of students in places like Kharkiv assembling in railway stations for passage by train. The government has assigned four ministers to co-ordinate and supervise the operation.
While the government did well to launch the efforts that it is making now, it should be noted that it started acting late. The Indian embassy first issued an advisory on February 20, urging students and others to leave the country for the time being. But arrangements should have been made for mass evacuation as many thousands of students would not have been able to leave in a few days by normal flights. Air fare and transit visa issues that forced many of them to stay back should have been resolved quickly. While the students were once told to stay where they were, they were later told to leave even by foot. This may be due to the changing conditions of war, but a clear and early response would have largely eased the situation. Unfortunately, there was also a tendency to blame the students for their present plight, and worse, to make electoral capital out of the situation by making claims during the UP election campaign.