Afghan MP Rangina Kargar mistakenly deported from India

Ipsita

The Taliban had taken complete control of Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul on 15th August 2021. Since then, the situation in the country has been very tense. Even MP Rangina Kargar had to leave the country

Background of deportation of Rangina Kargar to India

The various countries want their citizens and locals who worked in Afghanistan back in their safe premises. They are scrambling to evacuate them while several Afghans are also making desperate attempts to flee the country. On 17th August, India introduced a new type of electronic visa called ‘e-Emergency X-Misc Visa’. They did this to speed up the applications requesting entry from Afghanistan to India. On the same day, the country made arrangements for two Indian Air Force aircrafts to evacuate more than 120 Indian officials from Kabul. On 25th August, Wednesday, they made the e-Visas mandatory for all Afghans traveling to India.

Who is Rangina Kargar?

Rangina Kargar is a woman member of the Afghan parliament. According to her and many others, Kabul fell to an insurgent group a few days ago as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. Kargar is also a member of the Wolesi Jirga. She is a member of the Parliament (MP) since 2010 and represents the Faryab province in the country. She holds an official or diplomatic passport. This woman said that she arrived with it at the IGI early on 20th August from Istanbul on a Fly Dubai flight.

What happened in India according to Kargar?

Kargar said that previously she had traveled with the same passport to India. But this time, when she handed the passport to the immigration officials, they asked her to wait. They further said that consulting with the higher officials was necessary. Two hours after she landed, India sent her back to Istanbul (the place she came from) through the same airline via Dubai. Kargar reported that the officials did not give her any reasons for the deportation. However, she added that India surely did this because of the changing situation in Kabul and also due to security reasons. The way India deported her at the airport highly disappointed her. She had not expected this from Gandhiji’s India which people spoke so highly of.

Quotations of Rangina Kargar

Rangina Kargar was found saying, “They deported me, I was treated as a criminal. They did not give me my passport in Dubai. It was given back to me only in Istanbul. It was not good what they did to me. The situation has changed in Kabul and I hope that the Indian government helps Afghan women.”

On being disappointed by India, she added, “We are always friends with India, we have strategic relations with India, we have historic relations with India. But in this situation, they have treated a woman and a member of Parliament like this. They told me at the airport that they could not do anything for me.”

What did India say about Kargar’s statement?

After this incident, the External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar headed an all-party-briefing on the Afghanistan situation. Addressing Kargar’s issue, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said that the government surely made a mistake and they will look into the matter. He said, “We raised the issue of a female (Afghan) diplomat who was deported. They said that they made a mistake, it won’t be repeated and they will look into the matter.”

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