Muscat’s warring Indian ladies! Who’s the fairest of them all?

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By Vinod Raghavan*

Muscat (Oman): Politicians are known to hog limelight at every given opportunity, but in Oman, two Indian ladies are sparring in public, each claiming credit for helping stranded Indians to return to their workplace in Oman.

On August 11, Oman’s leading newspapers  Oman Observer and Muscat Daily published articles about the group led by Rashmi Sahay, former Mrs World (Asia Pacific) – 2019, stranded in India due to COVID-19 ,who returned to Muscat recently.

The Observer article highlighted how Sahay with a team of volunteers guided and helped to bring back Indians who had gone to India for various reasons – holiday, medical, marriages, and were stranded in India since March.

Two days later on August 13, Muscat Daily published how Kintu Shah, who herself was stuck in India, helped stranded Indian expatriates and their families, return to Oman.

It may be mentioned that the authorities from India and Oman had relaxed the rules recently helping the stranded people to travel by airlines. The group led by Sahay claimed it not only worked to ensure approval but was also in touch with the concerned airlines including national airlines of Oman and India to help expatriates return.

However, immediately Kintu and others – Madhulika Gupta and Seema Choudhary, took to Facebook to refute Rashmi and her group’s claim.

While, reacting to the article posted on Facebook by Rashmi, Madhulika Gupta, remarked: “Good job, Rashmi per Idea to mera aur Seema Choudhery ka thha jo tumko bataya thha thodi credit bhi de diya karo yaar. (Idea was mine and Seema Choudhary’s.. We shared our idea with you.. You chose to take all credit to yourself. At least you should have the courtesy to give us some credit.)

Seema too made a comment on the post: “hahaha humko kisi credit ki zaroorat nahi hai yeah jo public hai yeah sub jaanti hai . Humara kaam logo ko push karna hai hausla badana hai jo ki hum humesha karteh hai.” (I don’t need credit, as people are well aware who is after publicity and who does real work. Our work is to help the distressed people who were stranded.)

Kintu’s version was published in Muscat Daily on Thursday – “Over 200 people have returned with our help, so far, as they were stranded in India… We are making sure to bring back every resident who seeks our help.”  She claimed her team had helped in bringing back more than 200 people in four flights while more flights were still lined up.

“The next group is scheduled to come on August 20. This will be followed by others later,” she said.

“We are doing this not to gain any personal intention or fame but to assist people who are desperately wanting to come back and reunite with families or get back to work. We have more flights lined up from India, so, if anyone wants help to come back to Muscat can contact us directly,” she added.

Speaking to this correspondent, an Indian Embassy official said, “we are more concerned about helping our fellow Indians.”

In the meantime, Rashmi’s husband, Amit Sinha, defended his wife, “Happiness doesn’t come through selfishness but through selflessness. I saw this determination in Rashmi and all Volunteers, who worked 24×7 without any motive but to bring smiles on everyone’s face. I am proud of you Rashmi and all Team. Just remember- you will face “DIRT” around you as you are in the mission to clean them.”

While  the Facebook war is turning ugly , the stranded people who paid their hard earned money for air tickets and bore other expenses are mute spectators of this unwanted war of words to grab publicity.

*The writer is a senior journalist based in Muscat.

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