WHEN PUSHPREET SINGH described the route he took to the US, it read like a guided tour through South America. “His journey was planned through Mumbai, Guyana, Brazil and finally Panama,” writes Chief of Bureau (Delhi) Namrata Biji Ahuja. But what awaited him there was nothing touristy.
But the following paragraphs detail the physical violence unleashed on the 18-year-old by members of the trafficking mafia in Panama. His father, Jaswant Singh, had raised Rs34 lakh to send him to the US, only for him to be returned in chains. For the violence meted out to his son, Jaswant blames agent Sanjeet Marwah; he says Marwah had tried to undercut the South Americans.
In the cover story, an Indian-origin voice comes through Suhag A. Shukla, co-founder and executive director of Hindu American Foundation. She says that available evidence does not “suggest that Indians are being disproportionately targeted compared with other nationalities”.
While the illegality of the migration is without question, the exodus itself raises larger questions about the lack of opportunities for these young people. In Kerala, we are seeing an exodus of youth to destinations abroad. The drain has always been there, just that the numbers have spiked. Someone recently told me that the young craved security—financial, social and physical. Young taxpayers are asking for protection in their senior years. Governments at the state and the Centre must talk to the young to better understand their aspirations.
That aspiration can be seen in @leisure, where Senior Assistant Editor K. Sunil Thomas writes about chef Regi Mathew who has taken his restaurant to New York. His runaway hit restaurant, Kappa Chakka Kanthari, made him a poster boy of Kerala food.
And in the larger bouquet we have Senior Special Correspondent Sanjib Kr Baruah reporting from Siachen on how India’s high-altitude warfare skill is now augmented by improved capabilities to tackle the challenges of the glacier’s terrain.
Coming back to the cover, I am reminded of Ambassador Navtej Sarna’s Last Word from April 2023. He mourned the death of his friend Mr Bains, “a kindly 90-year-old retired customs officer” who lived in his home in a mango orchard outside Gurdaspur. A cardiac event ended his life, as quality medical care was not available in time.
What got my attention was what Mr Dhillon (name changed), a friend of Mr Bains, told Sarna. “For 30 years,” he said, “we’ve lived in a village in Canada, a village. But just one call to 911 and they come immediately. You get the best treatment. Here, there is nothing.”
Sarna wrote: “He mentioned the minimum hourly wage of $15. Of his sons who now grow Honeycrisp apples in an 80-acre orchard near Niagara Falls. About his own prize-winning flowers. About how he has never felt any racism, how the ‘goras love us’ and how the Canadian government gives both him and his wife old-age pension because ‘they want their citizens to live honourably’”. Sarna was not for people migrating, but he seemed to have mixed feelings at the end of the column.
We should listen more to Mr Dhillon, perhaps, to see what we can do to keep our children here.