Overplaying Israel
By Vidyadharan MP
Last week in India, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s got presumably one of his warmest welcomes ever received in a foreign country. Ignoring protocols, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi drove to the airport to receive him. Then they had warmly interactions many a times, indepth talks and they attended many programmes together. “Modi, my best friend”, the Israeli premier said in most of his functions, evoking the personal rapport and warmth he enjoys with Modi.
Modi is known for his love to talk. But even at a big international event like the Raisina Dialogue which the government organises with Observer Research Foundation, Modi sat in the special front row, listening carefully to the visiting prime minister. And he showered praise after praise on his host. Such an occasion is so rare that even foreign minister Smt Sushma Swaraj was compelled to mention it.
Not only that. From Delhi, Netanyahu, wife and the 120-strong team flew into Modi’s home State Gujarat. Here again, he was given a warm welcome. Children there waved Star of David flags and sung in Hebrew. Modi himself was there, personally overseeing the welcome. Then came his Mumbai visit where top Bollywood stars, industrialists and others met the visiting prime minister.
Usually, India does not provide this kind of welcome to a visiting dignitary. Only very few world leaders had received such a welcome. This reminded one of the welcomes provided to once Soviet Presidents like Leonid Brezhnev, Michael Gorbachev. And later also to US Presidents like Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama. Grand welcomes to Soviet and US Presidents were understandable. India and the Soviet Union had a very close relationship during the cold war period. There were lots of people-to-people contacts and cooperation.
After the cold war, India began improving relations with the US. The relations between the two nations strengthened, ironically, after the nuclear test done by BJP-led government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. And during the Kargil war with Pakistan, US President Bill Clinton came to the help of India, warning Pakistan to pull back its forces immediately. Thereafter, Congress’s Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh took the ties forward, building up an excellent rapport with President Bush which led to the signing of the Indo-US nuclear agreement.
After Modi became the PM, he developed one of the best relations with President Barack Obama. He met Obama many times and Obama became the first US President to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade. With Donald Trump too, Modi has developed good rapport, though it may not be wrong to say Modi’s had a better rapport with Obama who too extended warmest welcome to him in Washington, as never seen before.
One thing worth nothing is that all these personalities – whether Soviet presidents or US presidents – enjoyed a certain level of popularity. And these leaders were followed widely, by the people as well as political parties.
But Netanyahu didn’t fall into this category. He is neither popular nor his country so power. Though technically advanced, especially in military hardware, Israel is a tiny country, which owns its existence itself to mainly the US and its allies. In India, with a significant percentage of Muslim population, people generally is not so warm to this Jewish state, though the relations between the countries is very old. Lots of Jews were staying in India before the creation of Israel and they were among the firsts to migrate to the nation.
Why did Modi decide to give such a rousing welcome to a leader of a tiny country? India had not given such a welcome to even great leaders of its neighbours – whether Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal or anyone else. The only two leaders he tried to give such welcomes were one to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe.
Obviously, it has to do something with first the ideology of his party, the BJP, a right-wing, fascist party in nature. It was during the prime ministership of Vajpayee that Israel premier’s first visit to the nation took place – Ariel Sharon in 2003.While it is a fact India had sought weapons from Israel whenever there was wars with Pakistan and it had helped India, the formal diplomatic relations between them began only in 1992 when Narasimha Rao was the prime minister.
After Vajpayee’s government, now Modi is trying to forge close relations with Israel. Last year, Israel’s President had visited India. Then Modi was given a rousing welcome in Tel Aviv. Now Modi has returned in his own style, making Netanyahu’s visit a memorable one, which will remain in his memory for ever.
The only thing which was missing from the old grand welcomes to Soviet and US Presidents was the opportunity to address the joint Parliament.
May be Modi himself knew Netanyahu is not such a great statesman to offer such an opportunity. But he made up for it with his personal warmth.
However, across the country there were muted protests. Not many people were interested in the welcome to Netanyahu. Some sections of the people were upset at the move. “Why are we giving such a welcome to him? Is he so powerful? Is he so helpful to India? What can we gain from a small country like Israel? Many asked.
Many fear India is moving off the track. Especially after US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise holy Jerusalem as the capital of Israel which is hotting up the scene in West Asia.
With more than 172 million Muslim population in India, some strategists fear such public showings may lead to resentment and later troubles. Also it may lead to many of our Arab nation friends distancing themselves from us and increased insurgency in places like Kashmir.
But the policies of BJP and its associates are also seem to be anti-Muslim, as they hyphen of Muslims with Pakistan.
It seems the policies of the BJP government, led by Modi, and Netanyahu are in congruence in general.
(The author is a senior journalist based in New Delhi and additional director (communications) of Observer Research Foundation, Delhi
