The performance of India’s Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj, at the recent meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Abu Dhabi made headlines back home. She is good with words. But whether it yielded anything other than praise for her address as a ‘guest of honour’ at the invitation of the host UAE’s foreign minister is not certain.
Because, as usual, while Pakistan, the founding member of the 57-nation body, threw tantrums, the resolution passed at the end expressed concern at the human rights violations in Kashmir and atrocities against its citizens. This is the template the OIC has stuck to on Kashmir since its inception back in 1969. Indeed, the OIC had made huge headlines when the then India’s representative, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, a minister in the Indira Gandhi government, was humiliated and made to leave the conference.
One explanation then was that the OIC members were angry at the reports of communal riots in Ahmedabad and wanted to drive home the point that the Indian Government was not mindful of the security and well-being of the Muslims. However, the hostile attitude of Pakistan could not be minimised in snubbing the Indian minister. India was keen for an observer status, given that at the time too it had the third largest Muslim population. However, India has since stayed away from OIC.
Even this year, India owed the invitation to the UAE which has gone out of way to assist India in several other ways. India helped restore the Emir of Dubai his runaway daughter and thus earned his gratitude. Since then a number of fugitives whom Indian agencies wanted in connection with various scams have been handed over to India. Clearly, it helps for leaders to establish close rapports with their counterparts in key nations.
In this regard, those who questioned Modi’s frequent foreign forays would note how these have stood the country in very good stood not only in the case of the UAE but, post-Pulwama, in major capitals of the world. To get back to OIC, at one level it is odd that a secular Indian Republic, which grants people of all religions, races, ethnicities, etc equally, should be keen to be a member of a body which calls itself ‘the collective voice of the Muslim world’ and specifically promotes their interests world-wide.
Yet, India has more Muslims than a large number of Islamic nations in West Asia and that entitles it to be a full-fledged member. Or at least enjoy an observer status like Russia. The Indian Muslims number nearly 19 crores and they ought to find a voice in the exclusive body of Muslims nations. Between Rabat and now the difference is that India has become a notable voice in the global affairs generally and in the Asian affairs specially.
A large number of Indians work in West Asia; therefore, India has a special interest in building bridges of cooperation and understanding with the leaders of these Islamic nations. On the other hand, Pakistan no longer commands the same respect and wields the sane clout as it had when most of the West Asian nations were still emerging out of their pre-oil tribal and inward-looking outlooks. Pakistan is now an impoverished nation, albeit with the largest population of Muslims in the Islamic world.
But as an epicenter of the global Terror Inc, it is treated with some apprehension. Therefore, despite the protests of Pakistan against the invitation to India, Swaraj did address the first day’s conference in Abu Dhabi while her Pak counterpart stayed away. And when he spoke the next day, as expected, he harped on their unchanging theme about Kashmir and the atrocities on Muslims there.
If the leaders of the Muslim world were better informed, they would have punctured Pakistan’s claims about atrocities, given how it tortures and humiliates non-Suni Muslims within its own boundaries and how it crushes under the army boot the Baloch and many other ethnic struggles for freedom from its brutish and barbaric rule. India did not lose anything attending the OIC inaugural conference and should continue pressing for a permanent observer status.