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A WORLD war without arms and ammunition – that is what the present-day fight between the human race and coronavirus can be described as.
The first two World Wars took the lives of an estimated 21 million and 75m people, respectively, and wounded innumerable others.
It took years for mankind to recover from the impact of these wars. In a way, the present-day scenario is not very different: More than 140m people have been infected worldwide with 3m already succumbing to the pandemic.
Even though mankind is united in its fight against the coronavirus, there is no hope of an immediate success. As the number of cases and fatalities increases day by day, all administrations, irrespective of the country, are struggling to cope with the challenges posed by the pandemic.
The migrant community in the Middle East was the worst hit, for obvious reasons. But thanks to the prudent, efficient, strict and timely measures taken by the governments in this region, the miseries and hardships were minimised.
Bahrain stood out with its response, preparedness and implementation – winning accolades worldwide.
The success of the ongoing fight against Covid-19 in Bahrain is primarily due to the visionary and effective leadership of His Majesty King Hamad and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince Prime Minister.
Since the outbreak of all ministries and most departments have been working united, day and night, like a well-oiled machine, to serve the citizens and residents alike.
We are hopeful that Bahrain will become one of the first countries to be free of this deadly pandemic in the immediate future.
Many Bahraini officials won the hearts of the expat community with their outstanding and selfless service. On behalf of the Indian community, I would like to commend one such person, Khalid Yusuf Al Jalahma, the first ambassador-designate to Israel. He was the director of operations at the Foreign Ministry during the time when international flights were disrupted due to Covid restrictions.
Thousands of expats, most of them Indians, were stranded in Bahrain and in India unable to travel. These included people who had lost their jobs, patients, pregnant women, elderly parents who were on a visit to Bahrain and students.
The Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam (BKS) arranged chartered flights from Bahrain to India. Being a first-of-its-kind venture, we had to overcome a lot of hurdles. Permissions from various authorities, both in India and Bahrain, were needed. Finally, the first five flights to India chartered by BKS carrying 694 passengers were scheduled to fly on June 6, 2020. To our dismay, clearance from Bahrain authorities had not been received until June 5 morning. Indian officials asked us to reschedule the flights to June 9. But we were not ready to relent.
We took the matter to higher authorities and finally the Foreign Ministers of both the countries spoke to each other. To our great joy, the matter was resolved and Mr Al Jalahma was tasked to clear the passengers. Despite it being a Friday, he organised a team consisting of officials from various departments and worked round the clock to facilitate the operation of chartered flights to India.
The first two flights left for India on June 6 as scheduled.
It was heartening to see a senior government official along with his team working day and night on a holiday to help hapless Indian passengers fly home. Sixty-nine chartered flights left for India carrying thousands of Indian passengers, all cleared by Mr Al Jalahma.
Meanwhile, many parents appealed for our intervention to bring back their children who were studying in India. Passengers on visit visas were not allowed to travel during that period. We took up the plight of these students with Mr Al Jalahma and he was kind enough to clear the travel of almost 250 students stranded in India.
A soft-spoken, hard-working, committed and empathetic official, Mr Al Jalahma is a true torch-bearer of the values, vision and principles upheld by the leadership of this great nation.
When a historic decision was taken to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, it was quite befitting that Mr Al Jalahma was chosen as the first envoy of Bahrain to Israel. I am sure this great human being will author new history in Bahrain-Israel relationship.
Congrats and best wishes to Ambassador Khalid Yusuf Al Jalahma.
P V Radhakrishna Pillai,
President,
The Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam
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