Home Coming! Inside Mission Vande Bharat

Mass evacuation that starts today will not just bring home thousands, but also help rehabilitate the needy and jobless

- Geeta Mohan

Around 14,800 Indian nationals would be brought back in the first phase of repatriation by the Government of India as part of the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’, a major mass evacuation exercise in Independent India.

Monitored personally by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the entire planning and coordination, inter and intra-ministerial effort was handled by Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla.

The Covid core team of the Ministry of External Affairs consists of Jaishankar, MoS Muraleedharan, Shringla, Secretary CPV (Consular, Passport & Visa Division) Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Dammu Ravi AS and coordinator (Covid-19).

They are supported by joint secretaries of territorial divisions for coordination with respective countries from where repatriations are going to take place as well as eight senior officers who have been appointed to coordinate with state governments where the nationals would be brought to.

MEA also created the Covid cell with geographical divisions, supported by around 75 officers to take all the calls and register all the cases of Indian nationals in distress abroad.

Then started the long and tedious process of preparation. Each mission that had Indians who wanted to return made a list with all the details and sent it to the concerned divisions in New Delhi.

Those lists were compiled and then Foreign Secretary Shringla made presentations to the Cabinet Secretary and other branches of the government to prepare plans for evacuation. The ministries of Defence and Civil Aviation were key players.

‘CAN’T BRING BACK EVERYONE’