KOCHI: Handling Indian expatriate problems had never been so intense in their diplomatic career till now. But when Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa takes charge as the Indian Ambassador to Qatar, she will be joining her husband on the same profile job in the Gulf.
Her husband Anil Wadhwa has been working as the Indian Ambassador to Oman for the last one year.
“We’ve been in Europe for long and are looking to this new assignment in the Gulf where India is involved in a series of high-profile projects in the energy sector,” they said.
“Every country wants to give more jobs to its locals, but they also have a job industry where they need foreign workers,” Anil Wadhwa said. Indians have proved that they are hardworking people. Moreover, countries like Oman and Qat a r need more people as they are having major projects in the energy sector, they said.
The duo are on a Bharat Darshan visiting Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi and Rajasthan and meeting officials and organisations that have a bearing on the countries they are posted. “We met Non- Resident Keralites Affairs Department officials (NORKA) in Kerala as there are more than one million expatriates working in Oman and Qatar alone,” they said.
Deepa, who speaks fluent Malayalam, is from Kannur. “I’ve never lived here. But I spent every vacation in Kerala,” she said.
Anil Wadhwa hails from Delhi.The couple has two sons both working abroad.