At a time when the Government of India is working on a war footing to rescue stranded Indians from war-ravaged Ukraine, the DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin is using the crisis to peddle his divisive politics while doing what he does best – trying to steal credit for someone else’s work.
Stalin on Thursday (March 3) announced that his government has decided to depute 3 MPs and 1 MLA from his party along with 4 IAS officers to go to Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, and coordinate with the Indian embassies there for the expeditious evacuation of ‘Tamil’ students.
Immediately, the DMK’s minions in the media started trumpeting about how Stalin has hit another sixer with the ball now falling in Europe.
However, Stalin’s announcement is not just ludicrous but is also nefarious as he is trying to use an unprecedented crisis to satiate his political itch.
Operation Ganga: Mission To Evacuate ALL INDIANS
Weeks after escalating tensions, Russia launched a full-scale military attack against Ukraine on February 24. Anticipating this, the Indian embassy in Ukraine had started reaching out to Indian nationals residing in the country and started collecting their whereabouts.
This process was initiated more than three weeks before February 15, when the Embassy started sending out multiple advisories asking Indian nationals to leave the country before war began. However, a lot of them especially students had stayed put for different reasons. In fact, there were very minimal bookings when Air India announced special flights for 22nd, 24th, and 26th February.
When the war began, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and also wiith Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy conveying his highest priority to ensure the safe exit of Indians from Ukraine. Now, here is a leader who is able to speak to two warring heads of state at the same time to secure INDIAN interests.
As a result of the INDIA’s intervention at the highest level, ‘Operation Ganga’ was launched to bring back every stranded INDIAN (which includes those from the INDIAN state of Tamil Nadu as well) from Ukraine.
Since then, the INDIAN embassy officials, the INDIAN Airforce, Air INDIA and the two other private airliners have been working round the clock flying stranded INDIANS back to their motherland.
As of March 4, about 10,800 INDIANS have been brought back through special flights.
Yes, there are challenges to rescue those located in the central and eastern part as these areas have been seeing continuous shelling and bombings. There is a need for the INDIAN Embassy officials to work out a plan to bring those stranded in cities like Kyiv and Kharkiv.
But to belittle the efforts taken by the Centre calling it as ‘propaganda’, casting aspersions and distorting the statements made by Union Ministers is downright condemnable.
Not Your Forte So Mind Your Own Business
We don’t know who is advising Stalin on these matters but his acts do suggest that he is either being misguided or being guided by a bunch of ‘Murasoli’ readers.
Firstly, foreign affairs is a matter under the Union List as per the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution. The state government has no business in it. In this case, the maximum that a state government can do is supplement Centre’s efforts in identifying the students from their states, be of support to the anxious families waiting for their children to return and arrange for their smooth travel to their hometowns from Delhi or Mumbai.
For a moment, consider that the Ministry of External Affairs gives a go-ahead to Stalin’s proposal to send his party men. With whom will they coordinate when the embassy officials are already stretching themselves beyond imagination to safely evacuate EVERY INDIAN? They would only be left squandering around becoming an international embarassment. Imagine the unnecessary burden they would be exerting on the officials there!
Also, what if tomorrow other states also follow suit and send their representatives?
So, Stalin’s announcement to send DMK legislators to the European countries is nothing but a cheap publicity stunt and a futile attempt at positioning himself as a national leader.
The fact that no other state has even thought about such a move should atleast drive some sense into Stalin’s head.
This announcement by the DMK government will meet the same fate as its international tender for COVID-19 vaccines which was an epic failure.
The Nefarious Agenda Behind DMK’s Announcement
The ludicrous announcement of Stalin has to be seen in light of the narratives the DMK government in the state has been peddling ever since it came to power. It started with addressing the ‘Centre’ as ‘Union’ which carries separatist undertones under the garb of ‘federalism’. Then came the rhetoric of the Union government discriminating Tamil Nadu over allocation of National Disaster Response Funds (NDRF) for floods that hit the state in November and December 2021. Next was the needless controversy over Tamil Nadu’s tableau not being part of the Republic Day Parade 2022. It won’t be a surprise if the DMK and its minions in the media peddle that Tamil Nadu students are being discriminated by Indian embassy officials during the evacuation process.
These narratives gains even more significance with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s speech in the Parliament in which he challenged the idea of India as a nation saying that India is a ‘union of states’ which runs on a ‘partnership’ by means negotiations and conversation.
So, the DMK’s gimmick in deliberately interfering in matters over which they do not have any authority or competence is nothing but a leaf out of its ‘separatist playbook’.
This nefarious agenda, if not nipped in the bud will pose serious challenges to national security.
This obnoxious urge to play divisive politics even in times of a national crisis shows the levels to which the DMK can stoop to.
If Mr. Stalin is of the notion that he will be able to emerge as a national player for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections through the launch of All India Social Justice Federation or by inviting Opposition leader’s to release his hagiography, he should realize that he will not be a force farther than Gummidipoondi unless he asserts his INDIAN identity.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.