By Dennard H D’Souza ,Research Associate, Maritime History Society
The Vande Bharat is one mammoth mission to evacuate the diaspora Indians stranded all throughout the globe. It has been touted as one of the biggest achievements of the Modi government in almost warlike peace times. But in all this conversation we should not lose sight of the contribution of the Indian navy. The operation Samudra Setu is the Navy’s major deployment in the current times. The last we heard of such an evacuation of Indian and foreign nationals was from Yemen, operation Raahat in 2015. This was done on behest of the Ministry of external affairs. But what makes Samudra Setu different is the purpose of its mission. The navy out here has to combat the unseen enemy which is lurking at the corner. This enemy is the devious corona virus which make every person a potential carrier. The navy has to perform a fine balancing act by ferrying passengers and keeping them apart.
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