Diplomat’s tireless efforts recognised

It may not have grabbed the headlines or even found a mention in print or television. Yet, the S. K. Singh award, instituted in memory of former foreign secretary S. K. Singh, certainly manages to draw the politically powerful.

The award which recognises excellence among diplomats in the Indian Foreign Service was given to Tanmaya Lal, an officer of the 1991 batch at a function where none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi were present last week.

The 47- year- old diplomat was recognised for the commendable work he did during the November 2008 political crisis in Thailand that left nearly 5,000 Indians stranded in that country.

Posted as the deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy in Bangkok, the diplomat as per the citation for his award “worked tirelessly to ensure that timely and appropriate action was taken” during the political turmoil which led to the shutting down of the Suvornobhumi airport in Bangkok leaving thousands of travellers in the lurch.

To deal with the plight of Indian travellers stuck in Thailand, Lal organised a 24- hour crisis response centre and worked with multiple agencies to ensure that stranded lndians were attended to and those who needed to travel urgently were evacuated from a military airfield.

This isn’t all. Lal even came to the rescue of none other than commerce minister Anand Sharma and the commerce secretary in April 2009 while they were attending the Asean Summit in Pattaya, Thailand which got disrupted by political protests.