Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
historian, diplomat and Nehru's confidant K.M.Panikkar attributed lack of Indian
understanding and sympathy for Jewish political aspirations to the role of the
Muslim community in India.
17
Though apprehensive of discussing this question
in public,
18
from the times of Nehru every prominent Indian leader had alluded to
the role of domestic Muslim population as a major factor in India's Israel
policy.
19
Narasimha Rao, however, enjoyed some tactical advantages. Since the
mid-1980s the Congress party has been steadily losing its traditional support
among the Muslim electorates and, in the 1991 election, the party did not receive
the endorsement and support of the self-styled Muslim leadership which asked
its followers to vote for V.P.Singh's Janata Dal. This considerably weakened
their leverage
vis-à-vis
the Congress party.
At the same time, Rao's move also evoked negative reactions. A decision that
had taken more than four decades to be formulated was called a 'hasty and
unprincipled' move. In their view, India should have waited until a
comprehensive Middle East peace was in place. According to the conservative
circles, so long as the Israeli occupation of Arab territoriescontinued,
normalization of ties was an aberration and betrayal of the traditional Indian
commitments to the Palestinian cause.
One scholar went to the extent of portraying the normalization move as an
'anti-Muslim' alliance.
20
Such a charge, however, is rather ironic. For decades
the erstwhile
Jana Sangh
and its later incarnation the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) had consistently advocated normalization. A Congress government
formally committed to secularism took the final decision toward such a decision.
There were suggestions that some of the senior colleagues of Rao had
reservations over this issue.
21
Repeated Indian reiteration of its support for the
Palestinians and frequent denials of any military/security cooperation with the
Jewish State were a reflection of the internal pressures and differences over this
issue. Moreover, visits by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat preceded or followed
every major development concerning Israel.
With the sole exception of a brief visit by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in May
1993, in the initial years, the bilateral ties did not see any high-profile contracts
or visits. India's problems over the demolition of the controversial but historical
mosque at Ayodhya and Israeli deportation of more than 400 suspected
Hamas
activists in December 1992 partly precluded any immediate high visibility in
bilateral relations.
However, nearly a decade after Rao's decision, Indo-Israeli relations have
been placed on a firm basis. Irrespective of the disagreements over specific
issues concerning the Middle East peace process, bilateral relations ceased to be
a contentious issue in India's foreign policy. Helped by the decentralization of
power brought about by economic liberalization, state governments ruled by
