BackSushma Swaraj continues Twitter diplomacy from hospital
Sushma Swaraj has continued with her Twitter outreach in spite of being unwell for some time now
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New Delhi: Governments don’t hand out awards for best employee of the year, but if they did, then Sushma Swaraj, minister for external affairs, will be a shoo-in. After all, her Twitter diplomacy has ensured that Indians of all hues, from honeymooners who lost a passport to migrant workers stranded in an alien country without food and water, have received able assistance. Washington Post declared her Supermom of State in an article carried earlier in the year while Foreign Policy included her in their list of Global Thinkers 2016. She was also a part of Financial Times listing of Women of the year.
ALSO READ | Sushma Swaraj in Foreign Policy’s list of 100 leading global thinkers
Indeed, stories of her helping out Indians in foreign lands and sometimes even within India abound. Swaraj has continued with her Twitter outreach in spite of being unwell for some time now. On 15 November, she tweeted that she was undergoing a kidney transplant at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), in itself a unique event given the secrecy that surrounds the health of leaders in India. From 18 to 29 November, Swaraj’s Twitter account was silent. On 30 November, it sprang to life with the minister tweeting that she had asked for a report from the Indian embassy in Dubai about a national who had walked 1,000 km to get to a court in order to return home. This was in response to a news report by NDTV.
Since then, be it taking notice of news about a Japanese tourist’s rape in Kerala and asking the state government to expedite the trial of the accused or helping a PhD scholar in AIIMS get a visa, Swaraj has been busy. She got rave reviews in the Egyptian press when she intervened to get a medical visa issued for a bed-ridden Egyptian woman, Eman Ahmed, to come to India. And on Tuesday, she tweeted her commitment to “spare no effort to secure Fr Tom’s release from captivity."
Father Tom Uzhunnalil was kidnapped by ISIS in March from Yemen. A video message in which he pleads for his release was released on Tuesday. Swaraj also tweeted out her ministry’s “firm stand" on the Norwegian authorities case in which the child of an Indian mother and a Norwegian national has been taken away by authorities over complaints about the child allegedly being beaten up. The mother wrote to the minister for help. In a series of tweets issued, Swaraj announced said the Indian Ambassador would be meeting the Norwegian authorities on Tuesday. In a series of tweets, she said, “I refuse to accept that foster parents can take better care of the child than the natural parents." “The foster parents are totally ignorant of Indian culture and our food habits." “We want restoration of Aryan to his natural parents." “This is our firm stand and Indian Ambassador will convey this to the Norwegian authorities."
Another Indian couple had both their children taken away by Norwegian authorities in 2011 on the grounds that they were not being brought up properly. The children were eventually allowed to return to India with custody given to their parental uncle.
“The minister is monitoring situations on a daily basis, be it about the Norway couple or efforts to secure the release of Father Tom. She follows reports, gives directions and this has been the pattern since she went for her operation. She has been in constant touch with ministry officials," says an official in Swaraj’s ministry who did not wish to be identified.
Swaraj is closely observing the preparations for Pravasi Bhartiya Divas scheduled to be held in Bangalore on 7-9 January, according to officials in the MEA. “Diaspora engagement is very close to her heart and she follows each and every development, approves advertisements and announcements before they are released. Just because she is undergoing a period of convalescence does not mean that she has taken her foot off the accelerator. She continues to be a very hands-on minister," said the same official.
Vikas Swarup, the foreign ministry spokesman while speaking to the Washington Post for the article mentioned above had said the minister’s “personal interventions on social media are really an extension of her personality—empathetic and caring to those in distress, wherever they may be."
In fact, Swaraj’s use of Twitter to help Indians in distress has also been the starting point for a new service titled Twitter Seva, which was launched last week and which will collate all the tweets addressed to the ministry for help and around 200 verified Twitter accounts have been opened to support the service.
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