Offering medical visas to Pakistanis to supervising 'Raahat': How Swaraj was people's minister

“After ALLAH you are our last hope.. kindly allow Islamabad embassy (Indian High Commission) to issue us medical visa”, reads the Tweet of Iqbal from Lahore who had requested the then foreign minister Sushma Swaraj for a medical visa.

Responding to it, Sushma tweeted, “India will not belie your hope. We will issue the visa immediately.” Iqbal, thus, was granted medical visa for his cousin’s liver transplant in 2017.

The BJP stalwart breathed her last at AIIMS yesterday night leaving behind her the golden legacy of statesmanship.

In what could be called a sheer expression of true leadership and an extension of caring self, former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj always came to the rescue of Indians and even foreign nationals, every time she was asked for. 

Under her supervision, almost 5000 Indians were brought back home from Yemen. The operation which was named Raahat saw the return of at least a thousand foreign nationals as well.

She played a stellar role in bringing back Malayalee nurses who were held captive by ISIS insurgents in Iraq. It was all because of the diplomatic efforts under the then foreign minister Sushma Swaraj that India could conduct a rescue operation of that sort.

This year only, Farah Naz, a woman from Hyderabad was trafficked to Oman on the pretext of a job in the Gulf country. Naz was received by some unknown man who sent her to a remote area. Naz’s mother wrote a letter to the then EAM Sushma Swaraj. After she intervened, the Indian embassy in Muscat came into action and Naz’s return to Hyderabad was ensured.

In the year 2017, Swaraj won hearts of many by deciding to grant a year-long visa to a Pakistani girl, Shireen Shiraz for open heart surgery. In the same year, another Pakistani national, Naseem Akhtar was granted visa on the request of her son Ali Asadullah for a liver transplant surgery.