India-Gulf ties on the edge

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across South Asia on Friday to condemn the derogatory remarks made by the two members of India’s ruling BJP against Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). At least two people were killed in the Indian city of Ranchi when Muslims were protesting against the blasphemous remarks.

While such protests in South Asia are not new, the reaction from other Muslim countries, particularly the Gulf States, is surprising. It is rare that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran and others have taken a united stance against the growing incidents of religious bigotry in India under the Modi government. India enjoys unprecedented close ties with Gulf countries because of economic interests, and these Muslim countries have often ignored India’s poor human rights record.

Gulf countries are so close to India that they often ignored Pakistan’s concerns.

In March 2019, Abu Dhabi was hosting the meeting of OIC foreign ministers. The UAE also invited the Indian Foreign Minister as a special guest. Pakistan objected to the invitation but the UAE pressed ahead with its invitation. In August 2019, just days after India revoked the special status of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region, Modi was honored with the ‘Order of Zayed’, the UAE’s highest civilian award. The same month, Bahrain, a key ally of Saudi Arabia and UAE, also honoured Modi with ‘The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance’ award. Saudi Arabia did the same in April 2016.

All this despite Pakistan’s strong reservations that Modi did not deserve such highest honours from Islamic countries since his government was involved in grave human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir as well as persecuting the Indian Muslim monitory. But Pakistan’s protest fell on deaf ears.

In August 2020, Pakistan was so frustrated with the Arab world’s apathy towards Kashmiris that then Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi threatened to convene the OIC meeting without Saudi Arabia and UAE. Even that unprecedented reprimand against the key Arab countries could not make any difference as Pakistan eventually had to control the damage.

In fact, Pakistani officials in private interactions have admitted that these Arab countries would never criticise India for its human rights abuses in Kashmir and its overall discriminatory policies towards Muslims since their economic interests were so intertwined with New Delhi.

But the recent sacrilegious remarks by two BJP members against Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) have threatened to unravel India’s bonhomie with the Gulf countries. Major trading and economic partners of India in the Gulf including Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Oman have all denounced the insulting remarks and called for action against those BJP members.

The Modi government was clearly surprised by the swift and angry reaction from these Muslim countries with which India otherwise has excellent relationship. The Modi government is now making desperate efforts to limit the damage as further deterioration in ties with the Gulf would deeply hurt Indian economic interests. There are about 9 million Indians currently working in Gulf countries who send billions of dollars in remittances back home. Not just that India is dependent on these Gulf countries for oil and other energy products.

Analysts believe that the current strain in ties between India and the Gulf countries may be used by the US to put further pressure on New Delhi. The Biden administration is not happy with Indian policy on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Despite strong opposition by Washington, New Delhi continues to import oil from Russia. Many in the US are asking questions if India is a reliable partner. The Biden administration officials in recent weeks have been more vocal on talking about issues of religious freedom in India.

With the latest row over derogatory remarks, Indian relationship with the Gulf countries is clearly on the edge.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2022.

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