Recently, India and its relationship with the Gulf countries was very much in the limelight which usually used to be in a positive way rather for this time. The bonhomie that the present government traditionally enjoyed from the Arabs was suddenly put in a critical place with members from the royal families becoming highly vocal on the issue. This unnecessary situation was created by our own people living in the Gulf putting out tweets that were regressive, filthy and abusive about a particular community. PM Modi jumped in to do the damage control work. As a follow on, the EAM Dr. Jaishankar took control of the situation in the aftermath.

 

HOW IT EVOLVED

The tablighi jamaat issue was a communal point in India's response to the pandemic. It created numerous contentions across sides with many communal coding the issue rather than being specific to the event. Everyone accepts that the event was a no- brainer in this dire time and it shouldn't have been held in the first place. Its actions should be called for and legally scrutinised including the extreme behaviour of some of its members. After the issue started settling down after much deliberation, some ill- tempered people of our own in the Gulf started tweeting insensible and derogatory tweets about a particular community such that they were in extremely poor taste. The issue raised the eye- brows of the Arab royals who went on a sudden rampage.

Aiding the situation to worse was a tweet that was put in the past (2015, now deleted) by Tejasvi Surya, a Member of Parliament long. The royal families in the Arab, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and many others jumped into the situation making it worse for the Indian Government to handle it immediately. Though many were propaganda tools and fake handles including one being that of an Omani princess had done the damage it intended to do. Later, it was believed that many of these fake handles were tweeting out with love from across the border to create rift in Indo- Arab relationship.

 

DAMAGE CONTROL

Soon after things went out of hand, PM Modi stepped in to do the damage control work saying COVID- 19 does not see race, religion, colour before striking, we are in this together. The EAM took on the diplomatic effort in trouble shooting the situation. Even the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said 'Don't blame the entire community for faults of few'. NITI AAYOG under its CEO Amitabh Kant did webinars on stigmatisation. After concerns from the top leadership and some damage control, countries such as Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait assured that they were deeply committed to friendly relations with India, thereby rejecting anti- India propaganda.

 

UNNECESSARY & UNWANTED

Traditionally, India enjoys a friendly relationship with the Arabs based on mutual benefits. Despite being conservative, PM Modi gave immense importance to the gulf countries. As a part of this mutually beneficial diplomacy, he was honoured with the highest civilian award of UAE in 2019 and the same from Saudi Arabia in 2016. The opening of a Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi last year is also part of the growing warmth between the two states. The recent call by the Indian PM asking Saudi Arabia(chair) to initiate G20 meeting on COVID- 19 shows the bonhomie of the Indo- Arab relationship.

At a time when the relationship seems to be on a high, this uncalled for uncivilized pandering of some regressive minds is unnecessary and unwanted. The rising islamophobia and its generalisation should be condemned at the earliest. This also creates opportunities for propaganda materials and spread misinformation with the help of social media.

 

WIN- WIN RELATIONSHIP

Nearly 9 million Indian live in the Gulf countries and 3.5 million live in the UAE alone which is almost 30% of its total population. India receives nearly $38 billion as remittances from the gulf which is nearly 50% of its total remittances of $78 billion with UAE alone contributing $13.8 billion, Saudi contributing $11.2 billion, Kuwait contributing $4.5 billion, Qatar contributing $4.1 billion and Oman contributing $3.2 billion. Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu receive most of these remittances from the Gulf. Remittances from the Gulf to Kerala largely contribute to their development of the state economy.

India imports nearly 82% of its oil requirements and two- third of it is imported from gulf countries to sustain its energy security in which our foreign exchange is mostly spent on. On the other hand, the Gulf is the major export market of India after China and the USA. The UAE stands at third and Saudi Arabia stands at fourth. The bilateral trade of the GCC countries with India stands at $121 billion. The possible investment of Saudi Aramco to invest a sum of $15 billion in Reliance Industries is a major breakthrough in our growing relationship. Also with the UAE flourishing as a transitional base and a logistics hub, India can hugely benefit from its friendly relationship with the Gulf countries thereby directly improving its trade value creating numerous opportunities for its citizens.

Apart from all these, India acts as a net security provider in the region. Indian Navy has berthing access in the Port of Duqm which is one of the largest deep sea ports in the region. Indian Navy also conducts Operation Sankalp, a maritime security operation ensuring the safe passage of Indian Flag vessels operating in the region.

This pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the Indian economy. India needs to up its ante in bringing home more FDI for its economy to grow. We need to maintain friendly relationships with everyone especially the Gulf countries to the best of our abilities. Silly, unwanted and irresponsible behaviour of own people flaring up communal issues will be destructive. The stronger the social fabric, the more weaker the communal divide, the more stronger of our chances to touch new economic heights.