‘Not on Mars, he’s stuck in Kuwait’: Aggrieved wife to Sushma  

In response to a Twitter joke cracked by one of her followers, who said he was stranded on Mars, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday morning: “Even if you are stuck on the Mars, Indian Embassy there will help you.” While many found the exchange funny, it touched the raw nerves of a woman whose husband is reportedly stranded in Kuwait for four years.

“Just ask her (Sushma Swaraj) how many Twitter accounts she has blocked to escape notice of tweets pleading help for my husband,” says an agitated Mamta. “My husband is not trapped on Mars, he is stranded in a corner of this world only. He is stuck in Kuwait for four years now.”

Her husband, Pawan Kumar (39), according to her, left for Kuwait on a Khadim visa (domestic employment visa) in December 2013 and has not been able to return eversince. He reportedly got a job at a laundry over there and things apparently went fine for the first four months. But the company was sold and his new employer Abdul Shammari started victimising Pawan, blaming him for business losses, Mamta tells National Herald.

“He tricked Pawan into signing some documents in Arabic and later stopped giving him wages,” she claims. “In 2014, my husband approached the Indian Embassy in Kuwait. He told them how his employer was exploiting him, who had his passport and other important documents. The embassy officials helped him find another job in Kuwait. But Abdul Shammari, meanwhile, filed a false case against him, alleging that Pawan had borrowed ₹5 lakh from him,” says a distraught Mamta.

When, in 2016, the matter came to the notice of Sushma Swaraj—who has time and again helped Indians in the times of trouble abroad and been fastidious about the same on Twitter— she tweeted “Pawan Kumar (Kuwait) – He is facing some criminal charges in Kuwait. We have offered him free legal aid.” The matter was reported by a section of the Indian media as well.

However, Mamta complains that the ‘legal assistance’ didn’t prove helpful at all. “The embassy officials didn’t pay any fee to the advocate and therefore he didn’t take much interest in my husband’s case.” Consequently, she rues, the court’s verdict went against Pawan. “My husband has been asked to pay ₹5 lakh to Abdul Shammari by October, 2017. We don’t know where this money will come from. We don’t have this much money to secure Pawan’s return back home.”

While Sushma won many hearts with the return of Uzma Ahmed from Pakistan, Pawan laments the alleged apathy of external affairs minister in a video released online, saying that she is not showing the same interest and swiftness in his case.

Pawan says: “No one is helping me here. Last year, Sushma Swaraj replied to my pleas through a tweet. Thereafter, the embassy arranged an advocate for me. But that has not helped me anyway. Sushma Ji has now blocked me on Twitter.”

Pawan also claims to have brought this issue to the notice of Union Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh through a tweet last March.

“Whom should I approach now,” asks a visibly worried Pawan in the video. “I am suffering because of the fault of embassy officials. I haven’t committed any crime here,” he laments. Then, he alleges, “Since I belong to the Dalit community, embassy officials are not helping me. They had specifically asked me about my caste. Thereafter, they started talking down to me. My wife has paid repeated visits to the office of the external affairs minister and the PMO. All she has got till now are false assurances—that efforts are being made to get me back to India.”

“Sushma Swaraj helps people only in those cases where she stands to gain publicity. A lot of political mileage has been gained from the return of the woman from Pakistan. If she is being dubbed as the daughter of India, am I not a son of the country? But no one is bothered about me. Whenever I call officials in the External Affairs Ministry, I am told that ‘you are not the only one trapped abroad.’ Do they have any idea what my aged mother, my daughter and my wife are going through?”

“If I take any drastic step, only Sushma Swaraj would be responsible for it,” Pawan threatens in the video.

Besides the External Affairs Minister, Mamta has also given written representations to MOS, Ministry of External Affairs, VK Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I’ve lost faith in the Government of India that it would ever help us,” Mamta says in the video. Amid sobs, she made an impassioned appeal: “I request all of you with folded hands, please help us to bring my husband back.” Hopefully, the Indian government is listening.