Opinion Israel and India: Iran's
Needless Hullabaloo
by Sreeram Chaulia
Following the
launch of Israeli spy satellite TECSAR from Indian facilities, the
publicly-aired criticism of India's ties with "the Zionist state" by
Iranian government officials should have produced outcries of gratuitous
interference. However, no one has asked why Iran chose to go to the
media with its unhappiness instead of resorting to the standard
diplomatic practice of issuing a demarche to the Indian ambassador in
Tehran. Nobody has challenged Iran's presumed right to dish out veiled
warnings to India over its foreign policy preferences.
Sovereignty in world affairs springs largely from the ability of a
country to conduct its foreign relations free of external meddling.
Actual global power differences, of course, reduce this principle to
mere theoretical worth. India has often been pressurized by larger
powers to take foreign policy decisions that it would not countenance in
an ideally free environment.
For instance, it is now known from the horse's mouth that the US forced
India to vote against Iran at the IAEA in September 2005 and February
2006. Stephen G. Rademaker, the former US assistant secretary for
non-proliferation, declared: "I am the first person to admit that the
votes were coerced."
Despite the touchiness about American influence on Indian foreign
policy, it is an undeniable reality. India's frequent attempts to
negotiate with Pakistan even when the latter is sponsoring cross-border
terrorism are believed to be at the prodding of the US.
That the US had enough leverage over India to ensure that it "did not
vote the wrong way" on Iran's alleged nuclear misdemeanor may seem
self-evident, given the power differential between Washington and New
Delhi. A somewhat similar situation existed during the later part of the
Cold War when Moscow often prevailed over New Delhi through a systematic
strategy of bribing Indian political parties, individual politicians,
newspapers, trade unions and intellectuals.
The Mitrokhin Archives, released in 2005, revealed that India was a
veritable "playground" of Soviet intelligence. Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi's refusal to condemn the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980
was just one obvious manifestation of Soviet coercion on a putatively
"non-aligned" country.
Iran's pot shots at India over its relations with Israel are more
surprising, given that it is a relatively weaker state compared to the
US or Russia. Tehran has even threatened New Delhi to speed up or miss
the bus of the delayed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline.
Earlier in February, Iran's foreign affairs spokesman announced that
China was ready to replace India if the latter does not put its act
together and sort out technical differences with Pakistan. What is the
leverage point that Iran enjoys over India to be so aggressive? Iran
accounts for a little more than 7.5 percent of India's crude oil
imports, far behind Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.
The likelier source of confidence that Tehran can deter New Delhi from
developing relations with Tel Aviv comes from its acute understanding of
vote bank politics, which has frequently plagued Indian foreign policy.
Iran's objections to the TECSAR launch were phrased in a manner that
appealed to the friendly sentiments towards Muslim countries that move a
particular section of Indian society.
The cultural affinity thesis, closely allied to vote bank politics, was
indeed one of the root causes of India's belated normalization of
relations with Israel. For decades, the argument went that befriending
Tel Aviv would enrage Arab states and, by extension, hurt the feelings
of minorities in India.
Notwithstanding the concrete benefits that an opening to Israel would
accrue to India, fear of losing votes held back politicians in New Delhi
for a very long time. Iran draws leverage from this internal weakness of
India and finds support for it's posturing on TECSAR from some Indian
political parties, most of which have never been immune from foreign
inducements of one shade or the other. Ironically, Iran did not protest
the rising interactions between Pakistan and Israel that are being
brokered by the US!
Tehran was apparently "jolted and horrified" by the news of Pakistani
and Israeli foreign ministers meeting in Paris in 2005. However, unlike
the TECSAR case, Iran did not publicly castigate Pakistan. If the
overall intent of Iran's trespassing in the TECSAR case is to isolate
Israel, it has failed to realize that Tel Aviv has managed to break the
ice with numerous Muslim countries, what to talk of India.
Israel's cooperation benefits India. Tel Aviv has equipped New Delhi
with the Phalcon early warning radar system. This state-of-the-art
technology enhances the Indian Air Force's reconnaissance and
interception capabilities. But for American stymieing, India would
already have received the Arrow-II anti-ballistic missile defence system
from Israel. The Indian Army uses Israeli aerial vehicles and electronic
sensors to fence the border with Pakistan. Israel supplies India with
sophisticated counter-terrorism expertise to tackle infiltration from
Pakistan.
With so much to show on the credit side of the balance sheet for
India-Israel relations, the Iranian hue and cry over TECSAR pales. For
the record, India has expressed concern about the humanitarian crisis
engulfing Palestinians in Gaza. India has never approved of
disproportionate use of force by Israel in its disputes with Muslim
neighbors. The charge that India is adding diplomatic license for Israel
to continue its impunity does not stand. All India has been doing since
1992, when it formally recognized Israel, is to look out for its own
interests.
(Sreeram Chaulia is an analyst of
international affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship, Syracuse,
New York. He can be contacted at sreeramchaulia@hotmail.com)
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