Chennai: In a rare gesture, the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj helped an Indonesian woman of Pakistani origin to get a medical visa to facilitate a liver transplant for her husband in a city hospital.
Little would have Shafiqa Bano expected such largesse when she tweeted to Ms Swaraj seeking her intervention to help her husband Afzal Abdul Razak Akbani, to undergo liver transplant at Apollo Hospitals.
She tweeted on Oct. 24: “@SushmaSwaraj Hi, my husband is suffering from liver cirrhosis. Needs a liver transplant at Apollo hospital Chennai.” Within two days she received a reply from Ms Sushma saying: “Shafiqa ji — Please contact the Indian Embassy. I hv asked them to issue visa for your husband’s liver transplant in Chennai. @IndianEmbJkt.”
Things became easy thereafter for Bano. Though it is necessary for Pakistani-origin individuals to get visa clearance from the home department Ms Sushma made this an exception on humanitarian grounds. This even made the Apollo Hospitals take notice and assure Ms Bano of her husband’s prompt treatment.
“1/2 @shafiqabano @gsbalaji1964 @SushmaSwaraj We have taken note of your query, we are in touch with you and 2/2 working hard to get all the details sorted and get your husband here at the earliest for treatment,” the hospital tweeted.
Even in the past, the External Affairs Minister’s tweets show she has a predilection to promptly reply to any pleas for assistance.
A majority of her replies on the microblogging site are with users having less number of followers. Her humanitarian gesture comes notwithstanding the heightened tension across the Indo-Pak border and shows a genuine intention to extend assistance to the deserving.
