Early Times Report
Jammu, June 2: Whenever the Non Resident Indians face any problems in the foreign countries they seek help from the Indian Embassy and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The MEA in most of the cases responds promptly and comes for the rescue of the Indian citizens.
The MEA's proactive approach has been hailed by everyone. Recently an Indian citizen in Saudi Arabia, Manik Chattopadhyay, took to the twitter and urged the new External Affairs Minister, S Jai Shankar, to help him return from Saudi Arabia, alleging he is being tortured there. He also threatened to commit suicide in his complaint.
Jai Shankar acted swiftly and directed the Indian Embassy officials in Riyadh to help Chattopadhyay. He instructed the officials to keep him apprised of the situation.
An analyst while talking to Early Times said, "Our government's prompt response to the distress calls is a good sign. The MEA has set an example and other ministries should follow its footsteps to help the people in distress within the country also." He said, "There are thousands of complaints about the alleged harassment pending in various ministries but no one pays any heed towards these complaints. Whenever any Indian is harassed within the country no one pays any heed and the matter is t "There are thousands of complaints about the alleged harassment pending in various ministries but no one pays any heed towards these complaints. Whenever any Indian is harassed within the country no one pays any heed and the matter is treated as a routine affair."
The analyst said that complaints vary from place to place but one thing is common in most of the complaints. Mostly the victims are harassed by the people holding plum positions. "If a common man dares to raise his voice against any person, who is influential and powerful, it's the victim who suffers as he is made to pay a heavy price for raising his voice," the analyst added.
An observer said that it has been observed the grievance mechanism within our country is "very weak." "Due to the victims getting cold shouldered response from the authorities people have lost the faith over the grievance cells which have been put at place to monitor the complaints against the influential and powerful people," he added.
He said that another factor for grievance cell system becoming obsolete in our country is that the people who handle these cells don't want to annoy the "rich, famous and influential people at the top."
Another analyst said that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, taking oath for the second consecutive term has rekindled a hope that things will change for the better. " We hope that the NDA 2 would take steps to get rid of the old practices and methods so that people could feel the change and start believing in the system again," he added. | 