An Eye On The Exit Gates

s Libya teeters on the brink of chaos, India has prepared an elaborate contingency plan to evacuate some 18,000 Indians employed there, chiefly in blue-collar jobs. About 8,000 Indians are in Tripoli, the capital; another 4,000 are in Benghazi, an important oil and gas production centre over which Muammar Gaddafi is said to have lost control (see map). “We are not sure how the situation in Libya is likely to pan out,” says a senior mea official, “but we are keeping a contingency plan in place in case we have to evacuate our people at short notice.”

It has been decided that the decision to leave Libya will be the individual’s. Officials say most Indians are safe, as they live in the residential complexes of the companies employing them. Yet the contingency plan has been prepared in view of dire predictions about a civil war engulfing the country.

The plan envisages the Egyptian seaport of Alexandria as the likely hub from where a rescue operation will be launched. Since Tripoli’s airport is functional, both ships and aircraft could be pressed into service for evacuation. From Benghazi, though, people can only be ferried out by sea, as pro-Gaddafi forces have bombed the airport. Sebah and Al Khufrah pose a real challenge, away as they are far from the coast. Most likely, Indians here will be brought by road to Tripoli, from where they could be shipped out or air-lifted. Already, the government has requisitioned a private cruiser, Scotia Prince, which will reach Benghazi on February 27 and return with 1,200 Indians to Egypt on March 1. Vessels of the Indian navy are chugging their way to Libya for the evacuation programme; Air India planes are also in readiness.

India has had cordial relations with Gaddafi. Once, though, New Delhi had a personal experience of the Libyan strongman’s maverick personality. During the Kargil conflict of 1999, former ambassador Surendra Kumar recalls how he and his Pakistani counterpart were summoned one midnight to the presidential palace, where Gaddafi, without much ado, suggested “Kashmir for Kashmiris” as a possible solution to the festering problem between the two South Asian neighbours.

Though fond of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Gaddafi never visited India. Nor did any Indian prime minister go to Libya, other than Indira Gandhi, whom Gaddafi extended an invitation through his wife Safia, who was despatched to New Delhi in 1984. But this warm relationship could freeze should Gaddafi survive the democratic upsurge. For, New Delhi has “deplored” Gaddafi’s crackdown on protesters, played a crucial role in passing the UN Security Council resolution critising him and, along with other countries, asked him to cooperate in evacuating foreigners from Libya.