Counterpoint: Axis of Anger?

As part of IslamOnline’s devotion to a balanced exchange of ideas, the following is a rebuttal article for our "Israeli-Indian Alliance: The Real Axis of Evil"  by Kareem M. Kamel. To join us in the ongoing debate, click here to post your comments.

Why Sharon?

Indian PM Atal Behari Vajpayee (R) greets PM Sharon upon his arrival.

The reason is simple. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (part of the ruling coalition which is made up of more than 15 political parties) is not the only party in the Indian democracy that sports multiple voices; to win the upcoming elections in 2004 or at least maintain its current vote bank, the BJP cannot go against what all of India wants, which includes its party loyalists: no occupation of Iraq and no Indian troops to Iraq, even if there is a UN resolution. Therefore, it stands to reason that a BJP government will want to invite Sharon, to somehow propitiate Bush and the US for India’s inability to send troops to Iraq.

That said, there is a number of BJP members, including some cabinet ministers, BJP leader Subramanium Swamy and another top Muslim leader, who thinks that Sharon’s handling of the Palestinian issue is fabulous! This also includes a top BJP leader who happens to be Muslim. They also see Israel as the missing link for better relations between India and the US. It is not strange for them to make this connection, since the Phalcon defense deal with Israel was concluded only under Sharon and was effectively torpedoed by the US under Barak.

Feting Sharon?

Reading the article, one would think there was some sort of a party thrown for Sharon. He was not invited as the Guest of Honor for Indian Republic Day. That would have meant something at the personal level. The honors went to Iranians this year. Sharon’s Indian visit is not a personal one, but official.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha’ath was here on a 3-day state visit and left a week ahead of Sharon’s visit. But Sharon’s timing was fantastic, for he initially planned on being here on 9/11. Dr. Nabil Sha’ath expressed distress at this aspect of the visit. In an exclusive interview to The Hindu regarding the timing, he said, “I am not so sure this is what India chose. His propagandists are very busy trying to pick symbols for always linking him with 9/11. As a victim of course.”

That Sharon was not able to be in India on 9/11 and cut short his visit because of the twin bomb blasts is another story.

The visit of Sharon on September 9 to India evoked all sorts of reactions in India, especially after the July 2 pronouncement by the Israeli Interior Ministry that no more Indian Jews - particularly the Bnei Menashes - would be allowed to emigrate to Israel. If you consider the fact that India has been one of the few countries which have never practiced anti-Semitism, Indians in general and the Indian Jewish community in particular saw this as double standards practiced by Sharon’s Government, bordering on racism.

However, Indians cannot openly object as most of the Indian Jewish community is settled in the West Bank and Gaza. However, the DNA test requirement for Indian Jews and why in they remain in the Occupied Territories are points of contention that came up.

Since Mr. Sharon is on the hit list of several organizations, the Indian government provided a four tier security cordon. This in itself acted as deterrent to popular press coverage. Filming him by TV crews was regulated. Most Indian leaders met the Israeli Prime Minister in his hotel in New Delhi. All traffic was stopped one hour ahead of the PM’s car passing through the streets with snipers guarding the streets. Any host nation wouldn’t want a visiting dignitary to be assassinated on its soil.

Sharon’s visit didn’t spark fury among all Indian Muslims as claimed; some actually welcomed it. But it did cause a lot of discomfort for pro-Palestinian Indians, regardless of religion, and they happen to be a majority. Sharon is not liked by the Indian people; he is seen as a fundamentalist with ruthless policies that amount to mass butchering.

Apart from defense and lobbying in which both countries have ties, it was interesting to see how Sharon himself was welcomed – with brickbats – and he had to stay in his hotel where political leaders had to go and meet with him. Maybe this is how the foundations for an Axis of Evil are laid, eh?

A Fundamentalist Alliance?

Sharon’s visit to India was portrayed by many in the international media as a fundamentalist alliance culminating in the formation of an “Axis of Anger,” that consists of the US, Israel and India. This is unreasonable. Just as Saddam Hussein’s behavior was not true of all Iraqis, you can’t hold up just one person like Sharon to
indict all Jews.

If this is about Sharon and the roadmap, anybody who has been following the whole deal would have known it was dead from the beginning. That Sharon agreed to it, to me, seemed more about scoring points against Arafat as part of the personalized politics between the two, which is sickening, for it is at the expense of the people on both sides.

Israel and India an Axis of Evil? How can any person call India evil? What have we done against any country? In the past decade, over 60,000 Indian civilians have died as a result of terrorist attacks all over India – that is two 9/11s each year for over 10 years. How many people in West Asia even chose to condemn these attacks each year by “imported” Mujahideen (70% of them are not of South Asian origin) who enter India via Pakistan? Russia and Israel did. We are grateful to the Russians and Israelis, who think Indian lives count. The US couldn’t care less, just like the Arab world.

Islamic Bomb?  

If someone seriously believes that the atomic bomb and missile technology of Pakistan will result in the proliferation of this technology to other Islamic nations, and hence naming Pakistan’s Bomb as an “Islamic Bomb,” they are deluding themselves. The so called “Islamic Bomb” will not be shared with others simply because it doesn’t make strategic sense. It will cut off the supply of technology from China to Pakistan, especially the tactical nukes. Why else was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the man who started the secret Pakistani bomb program, assassinated by the Pakistani Army? Also, if it was indeed an “Islamic bomb,” how come Iran and other Islamic nations are seeking Russia’s help for their nuclear programs? Why isn’t Pakistan helping them?

Or for that matter, why did the Indian government refuse to allow the destruction of the Pakistani Nuclear program by Israeli commandos, who had proposed to attack Pakistan from Indian soil, famously referred to as the “Indian historical dysentery” by the former Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Hamid Gul? Gul is right; it was a strategic blunder on the part of India, but the Indian government (under the fundamentalist BJP government) didn’t think it was right to destroy the weapons program of another sovereign country while it was developing its own. Morally right but strategically stupid, not because it was an “Islamic Bomb,” but because it would have helped India control Pakistani sponsored attacks on various parts of India.

Double Standards  

Egypt was one of the first in the Islamic World to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, even when India opposed it. What about the secret arms deals between Pakistan and Israel under General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s, encouraged by the CIA? 

US, Israel and India a new Axis of Anger against Muslims? Have people lost their minds? The Palestinian Foreign Minister was in India on a 3-day state visit before Sharon’s visit. Does this mean there is also an India-Palestine axis against Israel? Why has India’s long standing support for Palestinians and its condemnation of the Israeli statement over the assassination of Arafat been ignored? Why did the Arab press ignore the Indian Prime Minister’s advice to Sharon during his visit here that Israel’s policy of violence against Palestinians wouldn’t work?

These double standards by nations of the Middle East are irritating. Maybe it is time to remind our friends that, next to Indonesia, India has the largest population of Muslims in the world – 150 million and growing.

What has the West Asian world’s record of friendship with India done for India? Turkey supplied arms to Pakistan when it invaded India while the rest of the countries didn’t even condemn it.  

What have West Asian governments done for the Palestinians? Or for Iraq when it was invaded? India did not send troops to Iraq or allow its soil to be used by the US for refueling. The Indian Parliament was also the only one in the world that passed a unanimous resolution condemning the invasion of Iraq. Even Arab nations needed the Arab League, while some allowed its soil to be used for attacks against Iraq.

Understanding India  

It appears that a better understanding of India and its foreign policies will come only with a better understanding of the complexities and chaos that is India. It is essential to understand India as a functioning modern democracy with faults. In a land of one billion people who speak over 1000 languages, follow over 7 religions and belong to five races, you can’t expect everything to be correct, yet at least we don’t indulge in pulling down or plotting against others. We have enough internal problems of our own to deal with and keep our complex democratic system afloat.

One cannot make simplistic assumptions about India such as:

• There are just two religious groups in India - Hindus and Muslims.

• India established diplomatic relations with Israel under the present government; it was actually under Congress in 1992.

• In India, all Hindus are pro-Israel and all Muslims are anti-Israel.

• Indians are either with Muslims or with the Zionists.

In India, Muslim appeasement by political parties is a myth as much as Hindu unity is. All parties indulge in regional politics and politicians pander to their respective constituents.

The Indian Left objected to Sharon’s presence and not to ties with Israel. One only needs to look at the placards of the protesters during Sharon’s visit to understand this.

Yes, India needs defense equipment which Israel can provide and they are not giving it to us for free. Israel’s special relationship with the US and its being a junior ally of the US does help India secure defense procurements, which it wouldn’t get otherwise. If any other Middle Eastern country could do this, why would we ask Israel? This is common in international relations. Apart from defense and lobbying, in which both countries already have ties, it is expected that bilateral co-operation will now include space, trade and agriculture.

In my opinion, India is a good democracy model for the Middle East; we have managed to stay together despite diversity in religion, ethnicity, language and culture. We not only have a large Sunni population, but also the third largest Shi’a population in the world. And they do coexist here in India.

Deepa Kandaswamy is a writer and political analyst based in India. Her articles have been published in five continents and some of her publishing credits include Middle East Policy, ABC News, The Christian Science Monitor, Khaleej Times and The Hindu. 

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