The
Difficult Task Of Finding Friends And Foes In West Asia
Saeed
Naqvi
It is widely known that New Delhi tilts towards Israel in its dealings with West Asia, particularly since the 1999 Kargil war when the Jewish state provided the ammunition required for India’s field guns. Other mutual interests have since multiplied.
It therefore made practical sense that
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj restored the balance somewhat when she
dwelt at length on traditional ties with the Arab world while opening an
India-Arab media conference organized by the MEA and attended by media managers
from the Arab world. The media link is a tenuous one because an independent
media is not the Arab world’s strongest feature, Al Jazeera’s inexplicable
credibility notwithstanding. It is an enigma: an independent channel owned by a
Sheikhdom which hosts the US Central Command.
Even during India’s non aligned phase,
there were groups and individuals who saw Israel as a model for the wrong
reasons. The late M.L. Sondhi, for instance, sketched a grand design in my
presence in the conference room of Jerusalem’s King David hotel: two non Muslim
countries surrounded by problematic Muslim neighbours. Both also had
“problematic” Muslims within.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1990, it seemed a dream scenario for these “two” countries to clasp the hand
of the world’s sole superpower and live happily ever after.
It would be useful for Sushma Swaraj to
recall the goings on in Atal Behari Vajpayee’s cabinet. L.K. Advani and Jaswant
Singh had agreed to send Indian troops to govern the Kurdish North of Iraq,
exactly the region the Americans have now returned to in military formation.
Why was India willing to subserve US occupation of a friendly country? In fact
possibly the friendliest country India ever had. In every UN debate Iraq was
the only Muslim country that stood with India on Kashmir.
In 2003 there was great faith in the
durability of the sole superpower. After Saddam Hussain’s fall, the Indian
ambassador to Baghdad was not asked to return to New Delhi. He was asked to
mark time in a three star hotel in neighbouring Amman, and wait for Americans
to take charge in Baghdad whence he would rush to present his credentials.
The person who read the future right was
Vajpayee. On April 9, Saddam Hussain’s statue was pulled down at Baghdad’s
Firdous Square by US marines. The global media gave it a different spin. Angry
Iraqis had pulled down the statue, the world was told. Vajpayee described the
US as an “awesome” power on the move. From Srinagar he called off the eye ball
to eye ball confrontation with Pakistan.
I have inserted this piece of history
the world knows little about, deliberately at a time when a handful of Arab
media representatives are present in New Delhi. The Arab media itself had been
pushed beyond the margins during the occupation of Iraq. The show was being
largely controlled by BBC and CNN. It is worth mentioning that Doordarshan was
the only non western media to have comprehensively covered that piece of
history. Sushma Swaraj was the Information and Broadcasting Minister then.
US Vice President Dick Cheyney, even
more than Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was keen to declare victory on
global TV. Obstructing celebrations was a singular problem. There was no
demonstrable public enthusiasm for Saddam’s ouster. The entire choreography of
the war had been designed for TV. How could the US declare victory if there
were no street celebrations?
The only people willing to celebrate
Saddam’s downfall were Shias in the south and east of the country. They could
not be magically produced in Baghdad. In any case Shias would be ultra cautious
coming out on an American invitation because after Operation Desert Storm in
1992 they had mounted an uprising in the South against Saddam Hussain. They
mistakenly thought they had US protection. But Washington looked the other way.
Saddam Hussain brutally crushed the uprising.
Cheyney’s men did some quick thinking.
After the 1992 uprising, Saddam Hussain had settled rebellious Shias from the
south in a ghetto outside Baghdad called Saddam city. These Shias could be
commandeered if their leaders, Ayatullah Baqar al Hakeem and Muqtada Sadr could
be persuaded. They agreed. That is when Shias came out of their ghetto slapping
Saddam Hussain’s photographs with heir sandals. Saddam city was overnight
renamed Sadr city by an American edict.
Only after operation Desert Storm did
Saddam Hussain place “Allah O Akbar” on the Iraqi flag. His message was simple:
the “agnostic” and “atheistic” Baath Sunnis would from now on not be averse to
the easier, more emotional, religious mobilization. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi is a
subsequent creature of this duality. Baathist education with a religious edge.
An ability to organize, administer, hold territory, derives from his Baathist
training. Macabre actions like James Foley’s beheading and suicide bombing are
a specialization of recent Sunni Jehadism. The two can be alternately stoked
against the American infidel in Iraq and the Shia exclusivism of Baghdad. Now
the US, Baghdad and Iran are laying traps to catch this animal.
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