August 26, 2006 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
Nengcha Lhouvum, India’s ambassador to Lebanon was at the centre of efforts to evacuate Indian citizens soon after the Israel-Hizbollah war broke out in late July.
Riva Ganguly Das, charge d’ affairs at the Indian embassy in The Netherlands, was on the scene when Dutch authorities turned back the Northwest Airlines flight to Mumbai and took 12 Indians into custody. Ayub Abdul Qadir Kolsawala was one of them. Here’s an excerpt from his account:
We were served bread, butter, tea and a cup of milk. Later, the officers from the Indian Embassy came. I can never forget Amarji there or Ganguly Madam. Especially Ganguly Madam. (a reference to Rupa Ganguly Das, the charge d’ affaires at the Indian Embassy). You know, she came despite a family function, she did not leave it to any other junior in the embassy. All I know is that she told us she wouldn’t go anywhere until we were moved to a hotel. She kept her word. They gave us all our baggage and we were moved to a hotel that day.
The hotel we were moved to was top grade, five-star, I can’t recall the name. [IE, the newspaper has got her first name wrong]Two great examples of how the Indian Foreign Service lives up to its name.
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