External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday telephoned Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and explained the reason why a minister from his home state of Kerala did not get a diplomatic passport to Saudi Arabia.
The opposition lawmaker who also heads the parliamentary panel on foreign affairs had the other day came down heavily on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government for rejecting the application of K T Jaleel, the state’s minister for local self-government.
“Thank you for your gracious call explaining the reasons for denial,” the Congress leader later tweeted.
“Now fully understand the reasons and hope they have been conveyed in the same way to Kerala government. A public explanation would be useful.”
Foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup had on Friday clarified that “it was not about issuing a diplomatic passport but the timing of a ministerial visit”.
The Indian embassy in Riyadh took the decision as the missions were busy handling the issue of 7,700 stranded Indian workers in the Kingdom and the pilgrims from India started arriving to perform the Haj.
Junior foreign minister V K Singh, who was in the country which is home to 3mn Indian workers, has also returned after meeting top officials and visiting camps where retrenched workers live.
In a statement posted on the microblogging site before leaving Jeddah, he said Saudis were providing food, medicine, hygiene and other daily needs of workers in Saudi Oger camp (where a vast majority of them live).
“The governments of India and Saudi Arabia are fully seized of the matter and are working in unison to resolve it at the earliest,” he said.
For those who willing to continue in the kingdom, the Saudi government will arrange for their transfer to other companies and renew their Iqama, the residence permit, “without any cost”.
For those who willing to return to India, the Saudi government has announced that they will bear the cost of their return.
The Indian embassy and consulate are completing the required formalities for their early return.
“Regarding pending payments,” he said, “(Saudis) have assured that their claims can be filed with the labour ministry. Efforts will be made to get their dues cleared at the earliest completing legal and other formalities.”
Riyadh has also formed a crisis management group and promised to appoint lawyers to assist them.
Saud bin Mohamed al-Sati, the Saudi ambassador in New Delhi, meanwhile, expressed concern about blowing up of “an isolated case”.
“The problem was the result of an individual act by one company....Steps have been taken about it. But let me repeat, this was an isolated case, not a trend or some phenomenon existing across other companies,” he told The Hindu newspaper.
“Three million Indians live and work in Saudi Arabia, enjoy their life in Saudi Arabia. And there has been no change in the average number of Indians travelling to work in Saudi Arabia. So where is the problem?”
He said the workers in distress were approximately just 2,500 and the government was bound to listen and wish to help.
“But that doesn’t change the relationship. There is no other relationship like this,  and it is not just government-to-government but people-to-people ties that bind us,” he said.
Politicians in Kerala engaged in a blame game over the laid-off workers, only around 200 of them from the state, after the denial of a diplomatic passport.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan termed it “mysterious” while BJP leaders retorted saying his visit would only have a “nuisance value” since all issues were being addressed by the missions there.
“We delegated Jaleel to go there given the widespread concerns,” Vijayan told reporters on Friday.
“But the federal government took a position which is unfortunate. They failed to understand the angst. That was wrong, mysterious. That’s the state’s strong view.”
Congress party member KC Venugopal also raised the issue in Parliament.
The non-resident Keralite affairs (Norka) department is under the direct control of the chief minister, and none of its officials was to accompany the minister.
He was planning to take an officer under him instead.
“Deplorable behaviour by the Ministry of External Affairs,” Tharoor had said in a Facebook post.
“Why shouldn’t the affected state send its own minister to see to the welfare of its citizens? Unless Sushma Swaraj intervenes, Minister Jaleel should go anyway, with an ordinary passport. Is this cooperative federalism?”
Jaleel had earlier claimed that it would be “difficult to visit a labour camp with an ordinary passport” as there would be no legal protection.
“The state government tried to do its duty,” Jaleel said.“The federal approach has pained me.”
Former Norka minister KC Joseph was also denied a diplomatic passport to visit the kingdom during the labour crisis following the Nitaqat initiative.