Kathmandu: Nepal’s ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party MP Vidushi Rana on Thursday expressed gratitude to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sending aid whenever a disaster strikes the Himalayan nation, while asserting that the focus of Prime Minister Balendra Shah-led government is to save maximum lives.
Her reaction comes after at least 270 people lost their lives in the tragic Bhote Koshi floods in Nepal, with scores, including Indians, still missing.
Speaking to IANS, Vidushi Rana said: “Whatever happened is very, very unfortunate. I haven’t slept all night just thinking about people, about families who are missing their children, missing their loved ones, and just hoping for some good news to come, just to know that everything is okay.”
“After the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, I think this is one of the biggest devastations in the country. But the government is super proactive. The most important thing for us right now is to carry out rescue operations,” she added.
The RSP MP mentioned that the Nepal government has launched private helicopters along with the government ones to carry out the rescue operations.
“The hospital beds have been kept free, even in Kathmandu. The less urgent surgeries which were scheduled for today or tomorrow have been postponed to a later date because we want hospital beds to be ready (for victims). The government is working very hard as we want to save as many lives as possible,” she said.
Expressing gratitude to PM Modi, Rana said: “I am really, really thankful to PM Modi because, as soon as this happened, he gave a condolence message to the families who are suffering and to the country. We’ve already received a lot of relief materials from India. Every time there is a disaster, we get help from India.”
“We are getting calls from the international community also for the help, like ambulances and other things,” she added.
Further, Rana said that Nepal is “very fortunate” to have India as its neighbour because “it is a big market for us”.
“The India-Nepal open border, which is 1,751 kilometres long, is not just an open border. It is a border that connects people, cultures and customs. We have a ‘Roti-Beti’ relationship, where Nepali girls are married in India and Indian girls are married in Nepal. So, we have a different relationship with our neighbour, and very few neighbours can boast of that. The relationship between India and Nepal has not developed only today. Historically, geographically, and in every way, we have been connected,” she noted.
Meanwhile, BJP National Executive Member Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, who is also in Kathmandu, described the visuals of the tragedy as “very frightening and causing immense grief and pain”.
“The Government and the people of India have expressed their condolences. We have seen visuals of a bridge being washed away due to flash floods. But I believe that during such tragedies, the ties between India and Nepal become even stronger because our relationship is of empathy,” he told IANS.
Further, he likened the India-Nepal bilateral ties to “a relationship between two brothers living in the same family”.
“There is no elder brother or younger brother in this relationship…It is a people-to-people relationship between both nations,” he added.
(IANS)
