An unfortunate aspect of the Twitter era is that matters are rendered dramatic — of course, the catch is that this happens when politicians use their Twitter handles to give themselves a pat or two. Thus we know from external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj that “the number of Indian workers facing a food crisis in Saudi Arabia is over 10,000”. This can’t have been a day’s development. It seems that Saudi employers are laying off workers on account of an economic downturn due to falling international crude oil prices.
They haven’t been paying wages. And the government, playing the Good Samaritan, has instructed our embassy in Riyadh to feed the families of the laid-off workers. This is a fine gesture. But for how long? Besides, if those laid off number as many as 10,000, chances are that our embassy may have known about the problem for some time but the country was told about it only when instructions were issued by the minister to feed those who have lost their jobs. The idea was to make a splash. A bit of propaganda is involved here.
If the problem was known and not much could be done to reach a settlement, then the issue has to be escalated. That’s logical. But so quickly to the political level? We learn from Ms Swaraj that one of her ministers of state, V.K. Singh, has been despatched to talk to the Saudi authorities to resolve the difficulty. May be he has been sent to convey the government’s thanks at a higher level. Or, perhaps he has been charged with overseeing the return of our compatriots who are stuck in a foreign land.
We don’t have the full picture yet. But it does seem a little odd that so many businesses in the oil-rich kingdom are going bust at the same time. Has there been any effort on the part of our government to persuade the Saudi authorities to intercede with the employers in question to pay the wages — in a few instalments if not all at once? It’s also not been made clear whether only Indian workers are involved. If employees from other countries too are facing the brunt, then it may be easier to engage in a constructive conversation with the Saudis. It appears it is not just Saudi Arabia but Kuwait too. If our workers have been left in the lurch in these countries, then it is possible our workers may be similarly stranded in other Gulf countries too. That’ll be cause for serious policy intervention.
