In Gujarati, Bangla, Marathi & Malayalam, Smriti Irani Welcomes Students From Ukraine | WATCH

Scores of Indian students, who have come back from war-hit Ukraine, were given a warm welcome by Union minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday. Under the central government’s Operation Ganga, stranded students are being evacuated and brought back to India, some of who were received by Irani today, who gave them a heartening welcome in four different languages. The minister in a video can be seen speaking in Malayalam, Bangla, Gujarati and Marathi while addressing the students.

“Welcome back home! Your families are waiting with bated breath. So I won’t take much time. we are grateful that our prayers have been heard. You have shown exemplary courage in the most challenging of times. Let’s thank the flight crew as well,” the minister said, also raising, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogan.

As part of Operation Ganga, India has launched a massive evacuation drive to bring back stranded citizens from war-hit Ukraine. Following the closing of Ukraine’s airspace, India has been carrying out the evacuation through its land border crossings with Romania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Earlier, the Indian government had appointed four Union ministers — Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and VK Singh — as special envoys of India to Ukraine’s neighbouring countries. While Scindia will look after evacuation efforts from Romania and Moldova, Rijiju will head to Slovakia. Puri will go to Hungary, while Singh will be heading to Poland to manage the evacuation.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that 26 flights have been scheduled in the next three days to bring back stranded citizens from Ukraine. He also added that 12,000 Indian nationals have already left Ukraine, which is almost 60% of the Indians present in the strife-torn nation.

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