India, Qatar and the 5th of June

There is something fascinating and ominous about dates. Remember the soothsayer’s foreboding of ‘the Ides of March’ in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar? When Qatar, one of the six member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, with all of whom India has historic ties of friendship and multi-dimensional cooperation, took the lead in protesting against the derogatory statements of two spokespersons of the BJP against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by summoning India’s Ambassador Deepak Mittal and handing over a strongly worded demarche, an unprecedented development in our relations with that country, on Sunday (June 5), I was struck by the irony of the situation.

It was on the same day six years ago, also a Sunday, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was received with full state honours at Emiri Dewan in Doha by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who also hosted a banquet in his honour after delegation-level talks and the signing of seven agreements to further expand bilateral ties. Before leaving Emiri Dewan, PM Modi had an audience with the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who is warmly remembered in India for his significant contributions to strengthening India-Qatar relations, including his three state visits to India in 1999, 2005 and 2012. Ahead of the PM’s visit, New Delhi had accepted my suggestion for his phone call to the Emir on the latter’s birthday on Friday, June 3; I had fine-tuned the time slot with Deepak Mittal, then Director in PMO.

Soon after becoming the PM, Modi had sent National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Doha with an invitation letter for the Emir, leading to the Emir’s state visit to India in March 2015 — his first ever visit to our country. When Modi led his party to a resounding victory in the 2014 General Election, the then Prime Minister of Qatar Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Thani was the first leader from an Arab or an Islamic country to make a congratulatory call and that, too, on a Friday (May 16) — a day of prayer and a holiday in Islamic countries. While Modi was hopping from one victory rally to another, the office of the CM, Gujarat, assisted me in arranging a mutually convenient time for the call. In his tweet thanking Qatar’s PM, Modi had affirmed: “We will take India-Qatar ties to newer heights.”

The foregoing has been recalled to drive home the point that in relations among nations, as in life, one should never assume that even time-tested friends would not object to something which is anathema to them. And that is what happened when a host of friendly Islamic countries across the Gulf, West Asia and other parts of the world — for example, our close neighbour Maldives and Indonesia and Malaysia in South East Asia — made demarches against the controversial remarks by the two BJP functionaries who had crossed what is absolutely a red line for every Muslim. In the case of Qatar, the first country to express condemnation, it was double jeopardy from India’s perspective. After having reportedly informed the Indian side, while Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu was en route Qatar on the first-ever visit of an Indian Vice-President to that country, about the cancellation of dinner in his honour by the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani due to medical reasons, our Qatari friends chose to summon our Ambassador even as they were hosting the Vice President. It is also surprising, unless the Emir was out of the country, that the Vice-President did not have an audience with the Emir. It is a tribute to the Vice-President’s astuteness that he went about his engagements with his characteristic warmth and flair, and used a community event to re-emphasise India’s strong commitment to pluralism and inclusivity.

While the action taken by the BJP on June 5 against the two spokespersons was welcomed by various countries, it has been widely perceived that this was done only after condemnation in other countries and not in response to the hurt sentiments of nearly 200 million Muslims in India, constituting over 14% of the population. It is also unfortunate that in today’s interconnected world in which news permeates instantly, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) led by a seasoned diplomat, on whose counsel the Prime Minister appears to have almost entirely relied in the realm of foreign policy since 2015, was remiss in anticipating the diplomatic fallout arising from widespread outrage in Islamic countries. While the Indian Foreign Service is undoubtedly among the finest diplomatic services, there seems to be a deficit of candid and broad-based consultations and brain-storming on various issues under the MEA’s current leadership.

In such situations, our ambassadors must also take proactive steps on their own, within the overall parameters of government policy, without waiting for instructions from Delhi. Swift public statements by the Indian community fora, especially in the Gulf, guided by our missions, along with interviews by envoys would have at least partially assuaged the ruffled sentiments in the host countries.

Notwithstanding what has happened, there is no reason to be pessimistic about further blossoming of our mutually beneficial ties with friendly Islamic and Arab countries. However, as a nation with the civilisational ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and a Constitution based on the principles of freedom, equality and justice for every citizen, it is high time we all introspect and make concerted efforts to save India from the scourge of hate-mongering and sectarian strife. If we succeed in making India truly inclusive, we can confidently look forward to India’s enhanced stature on the global stage. Otherwise, the reality will continue to be different from self-congratulatory slogans and appraisals. Friends, leaders and fellow Indians, we are at the cusp of history and must not squander our huge potential to scale newer heights of success.