By Sushil Kutty
Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya has lost her tryst with life. There’s “nothing much India can do”, the Modi government told the Supreme Court of India on July 14 at the risk of one more “surrender” laid at the door of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is procrastination, actually which put paid to the “save Priya” campaign. Indian authorities at several levels over a period of several years failed Nimisha Priya at every step of the way, from the High Court of Kerala to the Kerala government and the Modi government.
The Modi government had given up years ago and Nimisha Priya’s loved ones didn’t know who else to turn to. Not when the all-powerful Modi government headed by the all-powerful, a global leader with the reputation of an influencer par excellence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi couldn’t cut to the chase and release Nimisha Priya from the clutches of an even otherwise ruthless regime. Yemen under Houthi rule is no country for mercy petitions. For not even a $1 million in ‘diya’ or ‘blood money’ in return.
Usually, the families of victims agree to ‘diya’. But Nimisha Priya doesn’t fit the Yemeni system and there have been ominous dialogues trickling out of Sanaa, the Yemen capital, such as “not even one kaafir who has killed a Muslim should be let off, it does not matter how much their international heft.”
With the Modi government admitting to this reality, Nimisha Priya’s last tether to life has been severed and July 16 will see Priya’s hanging in a Sanaa prison, perhaps the first Indian to meet her end in a Yemeni jail. Yemen is a country where the Islamic law runs through every lane and alley, breathing life into the system. Unfortunately for Nimisha Priya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aura runs weak in Yemen.
Prime Minister Modi might be a global heavyweight, his ’56” chest’ weighed down by awards and medals of over 27 countries. But even Prime Minister Modi is helpless against Yemen which has no love lost for India. Modi would agree wholeheartedly. Chanakya said centuries ago. Israel’s friend India cannot be Yemen’s friend.
So with what face will the Modi government go pleading for Nimisha Priya’s life. In a manner of speaking, Priya is the victim of global geopolitical manoeuvring. If India and Yemen had even minimal diplomatic ties, the Modi government wouldn’t have raised its hands in helpless surrender. The problem is worse. Even a “surrender” wouldn’t help, the animosity between India and Yemen is too deep-rooted.
Yemen is not UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or even Qatar. These are countries which are active among civilized nations. Yemen is not the heavenly spot. It is at war with itself and the streak of fundamentalism that runs through Yemen is like a cancer. Palakkad-born nurse Nimisha Priya has been on death row in Yemen since 2020.
And enough opportunities had been given to the Kerala government to push for her release from the Yemeni prison, The “murder” of the Yemeni national, who was Priya’s Yemeni sponsor and had taken “possession” of her passport, was a desperate move to escape from his pernicious clutches as much as to escape to the freedom of her own country, “India”.
Unfortunately, the escape was foiled and Nimisha Priya found herself “landlocked”, on death and the Yemeni law squarely and firmly against her. Petitions asking the Centre and State government to intervene found their way to a roadblock and the Kerala High Court refused to take a firm stand. For Nimisha Priya, there wasn’t much left to hope for.
With her execution set for July 16, the Modi government on Monday (July 14) told the Supreme Court that there’s “nothing much” it could do to stop Nimisha Priya’s execution “There isn’t much (the) government can do, looking at the sensitivity of Yemen, it is not diplomatically recognized,” Attorney General Venkataramani told the Supreme court.
The Modi government said it was trying to save Nimisha through private channels, but that there was only so far it could go, which amounts to the blanket statement that it can’t do zilch. “There’s a point till which the government of India can go. We have reached that. Yemen is not like any other part of the world. We didn’t want to complicate the situation by going public…”
Nimisha Priya is lodged in a prison controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis, with whom India shares no diplomatic ties. Whether India recognizes the “Houthi government” is itself in doubt and by speaking about its limitations vis a vis Nimisha Priya, the Modi government is admitting its helplessness. The government also told the Supreme Court that there was no way of knowing what was going on in Yemen.
“It’s not a matter where the government can be asked to do something beyond…it’s very unfortunate,” the Modi government’s counsel told the court. Nimisha Priya moved to Yemen with her family in 2011 for work, but her husband and daughter returned to India three years later over financial troubles.
Nimisha stayed back to earn for her family and decided to open a clinic, for which she partnered up with a Yemeni national named Talal Abdo Mahdi, which was a fatal mistake. Mahdi took over her life with her passport and allegedly physically abused and threatened her. In a bid to get hold of her passport, Nimisha tried to sedate Mahdi, but the dose killed him.
The “Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council” had gone to the Kerala High Court in 2022, imploring the federal government to “facilitate diplomatic interventions as well as negotiations with the family of the victim on behalf of Nimisha Priya to save her life by paying blood money in accordance with the law of the land in a time-bound manner”, but nothing came out of the effort, even though the council offered $1 million in ‘Diya’ for a pardon for Nimisha Priya. (IPA Service)
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