Kharge asks Modi and Shah to send NDRF to flood-hit Nepal

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote separately to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on 28 August, with the letters released on Saturday, asking the Centre to widen relief for flood-hit Nepal and to speed the return of Indians still out of contact there.

The letter to Modi cites media counts of more than 600 dead and thousands missing. "I request you to ensure that adequate humanitarian and relief assistance is provided to the affected people of Nepal in coordination with the Government of Nepal." On Indian citizens and persons of Indian origin, he asked for directions so that rescue and evacuation continue and arrangements are made for a safe return.

He then used the Ministry of External Affairs' own figure. Around 320 Indian nationals remain uncontactable. "I hope the Government of India will take immediate steps to provide all possible assistance during this difficult time."

The letter to Shah is more specific on tools. Kharge asked the government to consider immediate and comprehensive disaster relief and, in particular, the deployment of National Disaster Response Force teams wherever required and in coordination with Nepal.

By Saturday morning some of that machinery was already moving. An 11-member Indian team that includes medical staff and tunnel specialists had reached Nepal. Three Indian Air Force flights have carried 57.5 tonnes of supplies, according to earlier MEA briefings. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had listed 84 Indians rescued, 149 who crossed from China into Nepal, about 400 safe on the Chinese side, and 320 still out of contact. Twenty-one Tamil Nadu pilgrims reached Chennai on Friday night. Sitamarhi officials said 106 pilgrims from that district were brought back.

Kharge's letters do not accuse the government of inaction. They put a public opposition stamp on a request that NDRF units cross the border if Kathmandu agrees. Nepal earlier resisted foreign specialist teams, then reversed that position. The tunnel unit is the first visible result of that reversal.

The politics are layered. Modi left New Delhi on Saturday for Tashkent and then the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek. The prime minister's public schedule this weekend is Central Asia, terrorism language at the SCO, and a planned meeting with Vladimir Putin. Kharge's paper arrives on the day that schedule begins. It keeps the Nepal death count and the 320 missing Indians inside the domestic news cycle while the prime minister is abroad.

Numbers are still moving. Nepal Police and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority have issued successive tallies. Saturday reports put recovered bodies above 610. Hospitals have admitted more than 2,000 people. Official Teej programmes in Nepal have been cancelled. China has reported seven dead and 554 missing on its side of the same river system, and a barrier lake that shrank overnight.

What Kharge cannot order is NDRF deployment. That sits with the home ministry and with Nepal's consent. What the letters do is create a written record that the Leader of the Opposition asked for that deployment on 28 August, using the MEA's 320 figure rather than a party estimate.

The next facts to watch are narrow. Does the home ministry send NDRF teams, or keep the response at the 11-member specialist group and the airlifts already done. Does the 320 number fall as phones come back or as more bodies are identified. Does Kathmandu ask for a larger Indian footprint once the SCO weekend is over.

Until those answers arrive, the letters stand as a request on paper, timed for the morning Modi left for Uzbekistan. Shah's ministry can answer with a deployment note or with silence. Either response will be read against the 320 figure the MEA already put on record.