Hassan Cheruppa Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Indian Consul General Faiz Ahmad Kidwai is bidding farewell after leaving behind an impressive legacy of outstanding services to a million-strong Indian expatriate community living in the western region of Saudi Arabia. Kidwai will leave Jeddah on April 30 for Bhopal where he will rejoin the Madhya Pradesh Cadre of Indian Administrative Service (IAS). B.S. Mubarak, who served as Deputy Consul General and Haj Consul in Jeddah for four years, will arrive here in the first week of May as successor of Kidwai. At present, Mubarak is in Ramallah as the head of the Indian mission for Palestine. In an exclusive interview to Saudi Gazette, Kidwai said that it is a very good and an extremely gratifying experience for him to head the Indian mission in Jeddah, which is the gateway of Haramain Sharifain. “I seized this unique opportunity to serve hundreds of thousands of Haj pilgrims through exerting relentless efforts to improve the services being extended to them. It is also satisfying to hand over the baton to Mubarak who worked under me in improving the facilities and services for the pilgrims.” Kidwai has conveyed his best wishes to all the Indian expatriates residing in the Kingdom, especially in the western region. “They are our country's ambassadors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and are responsible for the excellent image that Indians have in the Kingdom,” he said. During Kidwai's three-year stint, the consulate general and the Indian Haj Mission have witnessed tremendous qualitative changes, benefiting the Indian community in general and the pilgrims in particular. Shifting of the consulate from a flood-vulnerable locality to the new premises was the realization of a long cherished dream of the consulate staff and much-sought after demand of the Indian community, especially in the wake of the floods that turned catastrophic in Jeddah in 2009 and 2011. “We were successful in shifting to a new office with better facilities in Madinah also.” Referring to the humanitarian initiatives made under his leadership, Kidwai said: “We managed to generate over SR650,000 through the India Festival and other means in order to secure release of Indians imprisoned for insolvency-related cases. Procedures are underway to secure release of about 16 Indians from various jails in the western region after payment of their financial obligations,” he said. Kidwai was instrumental in giving a new impetus to Saudi-India business relations. In his capacity as vice patron of Saudi-Indian Business Network (SIBN), serious efforts have been made to further strengthen business cooperation and exchange of visits of business delegations. “In the commercial area, we have made a lot of initiatives. The last example of which was the unprecedented participation of Indian companies in the Jeddah International Trade Fair (JITF), held in December 2013. India was the guest country at JITF with the presence of more than 80 companies.” Consulate like a well-oiled machine during amnesty Kidwai has no words to express his profound thanks to the Saudi and Indian authorities as well as to the Indian expatriate community to enable the consulate to take full advantage of the seven-month amnesty period last year in regulating the labor and residential status of the maximum number of illegal Indians. With the full support of the Saudi authorities and the Indian community, he steered well the consulate to work like a well-oiled machine. “With a limited number of staff, we are tasked to serve more than one million Indians spread out within 2,000 km in hundreds of towns and villages from the northern border region of Tabuk to the southern border region of Najran; and reaching out to these people and addressing their problems are a big challenge. Apart from this, we managed to successfully cope with the extra-ordinary situation during the amnesty period.” Kidwai said that he learned a lot through the interaction of a cross section of the Indian community both leaders and the ordinary folk alike. Qualitative leap in Haj operation During the last three years, the Indian Haj mission was able to score excellent performance results thanks to the dedicated services and untiring efforts under the captaincy of Kidwai. There has been remarkable qualitative leap with regard to the accommodation and transportation of pilgrims due to the meticulous and systematic operation plan. Kidwai was instrumental in making qualitative changes in the services and facilities being extended to Haj pilgrims, and that was with the strong support of the Haj consuls — Mubarak in the first year and then Sheikh Mohammed Noor Rahman in the last two years. “Commandeering Haj operation of Indian pilgrims was a highly Herculean task and a satisfying experience as well,” he said. According to Kidwai, Haj management is a very complex and at the same time very satisfying exercise. “As is well-known, more than 90 percent of the Indian pilgrims are performing Haj for the first time and almost all of them would have stepped out of their villages and small towns for the first time in their lives. They are undertaking a foreign visit for the first and probably for the last time in their lives, and therefore, it is our duty to make it a memorable experience for them — one that is as smooth and comfortable as possible.” Kidwai said the Indian Haj Mission was able to introduce more than 30 new facilities and services for the pilgrims during his tenure. “Application of information technology in improving facilities and services and transparency and fairness in hiring of accommodation are the most important among them. We were keen in picking complaint-free buildings, as well as in clubbing of aged pilgrims and accommodating them in most suitable buildings,” he said. He also cited some other achievements, such as, the common mailing IDs for all state Haj committees and group mailing IDs for all branches and desks in Makkah and Madinah, SIM cards with preloaded contact numbers for pilgrims, remote-city check-in during departure phase, online complaints redress and monitoring system, Vishwa Yatra Foreign Travel Card, two-time free refilling of gas cylinders, direct cash refund for non-availability of lifts, and train facilities for all pilgrims. Success mantra makes popular CG Kidwai, an Aligarian, once summed up his success mantra in the following words “Maintaining a positive attitude and identifying one's goal and working hard for achieving it are the main keys to success. You should know and understand what your people want. You should always be a step ahead because if you understand what they want, then there is a rare chance for your failure in whatever you do. If you are sincere in work, even those who oppose you would support and help you achieve that goal.” Translating into action of these words was what made Kidwai a popular consul general. Kidwai, whose undying will-power after failing in an engineering entrance test led him later scale up the ladders of IAS, is well-known for his simple demeanor and positive attitude in addressing myriad community problems that he has had come across while serving as consul general.
During the amnesty period, he came out with a way to address the problem of people without any original documents as well as the cases of those who were desperately in need of help due to obstacles created by their individual sponsors. Speaking earlier to Saudi Gazette about his effective handling of this situation, Kidwai said: “Initially we had a tough time tackling a large number of people who thronged the consulate in order to settle their matters. We then instantly swung into action to work out some systematic arrangements. Accordingly, we have set up as many as 17 help desks and streamlined the process. We started accepting applications for emergency certificates (EC), issuing ECs, and tackling numerous problems with the involvement of the members of the community.” Kidwai claimed that the consulate made remarkable achievements with regard to finding suitable placements for a large number of unregulated nationals. “Apart from holding two job fairs, we were able to make it a daily event. Within 50 days, I presume that 7,000 - 8,000 people have been benefited from this.” Kidwai is stepping out of the Jeddah mission with a little more mission to fulfill. “Some changes have to be made and more improvements are required in passport and community welfare sections,” he added.
