Citizen’s Activism Is it guiding India’s Middle East policy?
By Colonel Satish Singh Lalotra
‘Foreign policy is a matter of costs and benefits, not theology’—Fareed Zakaria.
The idea of nation- states was the final culmination of human beings in their road to evolutionary development to stay together in a cohesive manner, their mutual differences notwithstanding. The differences among these states were primarily triggered owing to power and national capabilities that had the overarching capacity to either pull them down for their jockeying for power or take them into their next level of existence riding on the wave of mutual co-existence and power sharing. More often than not it was the former that redefined their relations; hence a long history of strife which continues till this day albeit changing formats as per the changing national /state priorities. These necessitated a clear cut and set policies which would form the benchmark for a nation- state to fall back upon as a pathfinder in the labyrinthine of forging foreign relations-the’ foreign policy’ of that very country. Also going by the name of ‘External policy’, it is a diverse set of strategies and actions that a state employs in its interactions with the world at large which generally remain unchanged and unfazed by the changing power centers of a particular nation. Often it has been observed that the very origin of a nation state has its unmitigated stamp on its foreign policy, since most of its actions are derived from its origin. Theocratic origins of a country will more or less have tenets of its foreign policy that are closely intertwined in its theocratic (religious) belief. Conversely a freewheeling origin of a country will exhibit an unconstrained or inhibited approach in its interactions with the world bodies. India being what it is known in the world -an apostle of ‘non-violence and mutual co-existence’, but naturally has been holding aloft the ‘standard’ of these two principles in its entirety even in its foreign policy. With one of the biggest followers and originators of ‘Non alignment’ policy in the 1950s/ 60s initiated by the first PM as well as the long standing Foreign Minister Nehru, this Non-alignment stance off late has lost its sheen under the changing dynamics of global power sharing.
India due to its unique geographical positioning as well as contiguity to the erstwhile human civilizations namely Indus valley, Mesopotamian (Middle -east) as well as Chinese has had a preponderance of closeness of relations with these regions. Particularly with the Middle East, India has had a very tenuous relationship dating back to centuries. The high mark of our close relations with the middle -east manifested in the origins of ‘NAM’ -Non alignment movement when president of Egypt Gamel Abdel Nasser closed ranks with Prime Minister Nehru in its formation in the decades immediately after our independence. Even with the Nobel Prize winner and founder president of PLO Yasser Arafat, our bonhomie with the Palestinian cause was not lost on the world. Having said that, off late our Middle-east policy has been under sustained pressure and fractious views with some of our leading lights of citizenry leading this charge. My biggest question to the readers in the beginning of this write up is —Does a nation state gets guided in its foreign policy formulation by the shrillness of so called ‘CITIZEN’S ACTIVISM’ that doesn’t border on the realpolitik of the world at large? If the answer is a big NO, then I suppose the same has to be conveyed by the present Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh to all the twenty five leading citizens of this country who have written to him a letter on 30th July 2024 to halt arms licenses to firms exporting arms to Israel from India. Their purported aim being that since the time Israel has been on the offensive from 07october 2023 against ‘Hamas’ in the Gaza strip to reign in that international terror army in its tracks, the onslaught has taken on the hue of a massive genocide with no holds barred in so far as allowing of discretion between the civilians of Gaza and the terror group is concerned; as also riding now on the back of incessant supply of arms ,ammunition and such war like stores ex-Indian arms companies to that Jewish nation.
This so called ‘Citizen’s activism’ has been led by a cross section of who’s who of India’s intelligentsia to include former supreme court judges Ruma Pal, B.Sudarshan Reddy and S.N.Variava, former Madras High Court judge K. Chandru , former CIC Wajahat Habibullah, retired IFS officers Deb Mukherjee, Ashok Sharma, Lalit Kala academy chairperson Ashok Vajpayee, author Arundhati Roy, CPI M leader Brinda Karat, psephology expert YogendraYadav, advocate Prashant Bhushan to name a few. Readers of this article may revisit their thoughts that these are the same persons who have a very high quotient of TV & print visibility / media presence and bombard them with their incessant unwanted views on the mental firmament of this country. Is it less surprising that these people despite remaining in the public eye for so many decades are still guided by the rhetoric and obsolete fundamentals of human rights plus championing the cause of an entity (Hamas) which has become an existential threat to a nation state (read Israel)? Coming to their contentions as such in the said letter to the Raksha Mantri, it is given to understand that all the above personalities have demanded ‘Re-cancellation of licenses and halt to grant of new licenses to Indian companies supplying military arms and hardware to Israel. Their contentions in a broad nut shell advancing their cause are as under-
* The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has clearly ruled that Israel is in violation of obligations under the ‘Genocide convention’ and further that Israel is in illegal occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory.
* In view of the above, any supply of military material amounts to violation of India’s obligations under international humanitarian law and the mandate of article 21 read with article 51(C) of the constitution of India.
* As per this exalted group of 25 eminent persons, at least three companies in India dealing with the export of arms and ammunition have been granted licenses for the export of arms and military equipment to Israel, even during this period of the ongoing war in Gaza and even after ICJ rulings.
* These three Indian companies have obtained licenses from either the DGFT ( Dte gen of foreign trade) or the department of defence production (DPP) that authorizes export of arms and ammunitions for military use and dual use purposes.
* In January 2024, ‘Munitions India Ltd’ (MIL), a public sector enterprise under the ministry of defence was permitted to ship its product to Israel and again applied for exporting the same product to Israel under repeat order from Israel. The approval is under consideration by licensing authorities.
* Another Indian company (PEL) Premier explosives ltd has been exporting explosives and allied accessories to Israel under license from DGFT since 2021 and has been twice permitted to export items to this Jewish state since the onset of Gaza operations. Similarly a third Indian company based in Hyderabad a joint venture , Adan-Elbit advanced systems India ltd (in which Adani group has a controlling stake),has manufactured and exported munitions in the form of aero-structures and subsystems purposed specifically for military uses for over 20 Hermes, 900 UAVs/military drones to Israel between 2019 and 2023.
* Further their letter says that as per (SCOMET) Special chemicals, organisms, materials, equipment and technologies application status as available on the DGFT website provides info on grant of licenses and licenses pending to Munitions India ltd& Premier explosive ltd.
* Having voted in favour of a Resolution on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in December 2023, India’s absenteeism from voting on a resolution calling for ceasefire and an arms embargo on Israel in April 2024 raises serious questions regarding India’s possible complicity in aiding the war despite the ICJ ruling.
Though there are many allegations cum insinuations in this above quoted letter, for the sake of brevity I have mentioned only few as above. In view of the foregoing, I may take the liberty of asking few questions from this exalted group of 25 odd who’s who of intelligentsia of India-
* Are these citizens who are signatory to the letter shot to the RM on 30th July 2024 aware that Israel was the only country that went against even at the cost of annoying its closest ally USA during 1999 Kargil war to help India shore up its mortar and guns ammunition that were at a very critical stage of getting exhausted ?
* Israel topped up for India the ‘160MM Tampella’heavy mortar ammunition which broke the back of Pakistani bunkers on the high reaches of Kargil.
* The mainstay of Indian artillery during OP Vijay, the FH 77B Boforsgun ammunition was at a very critical stage that could have swung the finality of the operations on either side. Israel was the country which filled in this void for India and changed the entire spectrum of war.
* The Indian air force was lacking precision guided munitions that were of critical nature to take on Pakistani positions at Tiger hill, Tololing, Munto Dhaloetc . It was Israel which came forward and did the needful including the ‘integration’ of such weapons on the weapon platforms (read Mirage 2000 fighter aircrafts).
* Even during the 1971 liberation war , India’s biggest war time support from the middle east came when the Israeli PM Golda Meir decided to divert the arms meant for Iran to India despite facing shortage of the same at home front. She even sent a note to Mrs Gandhi asking for establishing diplomatic ties In return for the arms.
* The biggest counter narrative that these suggestions elicit is that they run counter to the stated policy of ‘Atma-Nirbhar Bharat’ as also a big road block to the privatization of the Indian defence industry which has just come out of the shadows of the draconian OFB (Ordnance factory board) that was dissolved in the year 2021.
As mentioned above in addition to the UN & ICJ resolutions that have been proffered by the group of these eminent gentlemen to Rajnath Singh , the few biggest self styed suggestions by them[viz violation of international law and conventions to which India is bound by, obligate India not to supply military sales to states guilty of war crimes , and also going against the ‘Geneva conventions’ ( article 1) , article III and IV of ‘Genocide convention’] sound very hollow and preposterous when weighed against the Geo-political cum strategic posturing which India has to do to keep it afloat in the murky waters of international strategic environment.
Could the above logics stated in the letter stand to national scrutiny when viewed from the prism of self-interest and preservation of national priorities taking a bow over regional (Middle East) priorities? Since when has such a tectonic shift taken place in our foreign policy as to govern such thinking from the learned lot of India? Or do we want to hark back to the dark days of Sino-Indian relations of the early 1950/60s, when national naivety in taking on the Chinese perfidy was paid in flesh and blood on the Mac-Mohan line by our brave armed forces? Moreover since the defence policy of a country is a derivative of the foreign policy, does this exalted group want to overhaul our national defence policy too , so as to align itself with their stated placid suggestions in the letter because they seem to be function of steering our foreign relations with the middle east in a particular direction? I only hope and pray that the present dispensation doesn’t go the Nehruvian way of treating Israel the way it treated China in the initial years after independence and pay for its folly in the later years. These are some of the questions that look askance, since they seem to be a corollary to the subject matter as such. It should be remembered that in international relations there are no permanent friends. There are only permanent national interests. And which should guide us in all our endevours in furthering the national cause. As famous Fareed Zakaria has told—Foreign policy is a matter of costs and benefits, and not Theology. Let it be that way for this sub-continent of ours and so-called ‘Citizen’s activism’ doesn’t whistle blow in an arena which is the forte of serious minded statesmen.
(The writer is a retired army officer)
