India’s Middle East Policy Part — II : Narasimha Rao — The Game Changer, India’s structural shift in Gulf
In the last post I had summarised how India fared in the 60s and how its economic ties were in the middle east countries. India struggled in 60s to gain any support from the Islamic world except the somewhat liberal Country Egypt which was under the rule of the liberal Gamal Abdel Nasser. This relation had strained relations with other gulf countries. We see now how India slowly moved away from this to establish good economic ties with major gulf countries and in the process also discovered new regional players.
If you have missed my earlier series , please read it here -
India’s Middle East Policy Part — I : Relation with Egypt , Saudi Arabia and the 1965 War
Structural Shocks of Early 1990
India reoriented its Middle East policy after some structural shocks that shook the world in the 1990s.
Gulf War and the Oslo Peace process :
The divisions in the Arab world left India with new diplomatic space to engage with regional actors it had previously neglected due to concerns of diplomatic repercussions. At the same time India was facing a domestic economic crisis and was forced to rethink its foreign economic strategy.
Disintegration of Sovient Union in 1991 also left India politically isolated. In the midst of all this the death of Rajiv Gandhi led the Indian National Congress (INC) government to choose a compromise figure, Narasimha Rao, to become India’s Prime Minister in 1991.
Narasimha Rao — The Game Changer
Narasimha Rao was 70 by the time of his appointment but he had considerable ministerial and foreign policy experience in his basket. He was characterized by both cognitive complexity and cognitive openness which made him uniquely able and willing to push for foreign policy adjustments when he came to power
The most important thing was he had no political constituency or ambitions of his own something very rare in those days.
He won a by-election in Nandyal to join the parliament from Nandyal with a victory margin of a record 5 lakh (500, 000) votes, his win was recorded in the Guinness Book Of World Records.
Appointed Subramanian Swamy and Atal Bihari Vajpayee —
only instance that an opposition party member was given a Cabinet rank post by the ruling party.
An interesting trademark of Roa was he looked beyong his party. He broke a convention by appointing a non-political economist and future prime minister, Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister. He also appointed Subramanian Swamy, an opposition party member as the Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade. This has been the only instance that an opposition party member was given a Cabinet rank post by the ruling party. He also sent opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to represent India in a UN meeting at Geneva.
Israel — New Found Love
One major indicator of this policy shift was the establishment of full diplomatic relations, in January 1992, with Israel, a country that Indian political leaders had long neglected for fear of estranging Arab partners or India’s own domestic Muslim population.
The Iraqi intrusion into Kuwait diverted attention from Israel as the Saddam Hussein regime became the new source of concern in the region . India no longer needed to systematically condemn Israel to obtain Arab sympathies.
The Madrid Conference of October 1991 created a window of opportunity for India under Rao to develop a strategic partnership with Israel while maintaining relations with other Middle Eastern countries.
Middle east now was a multipolar world with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel. The establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel was also considered by Rao to be a necessary step to improve ties with the U.S., a close Israeli ally, in the post-Cold War era
The normalization of ties with Israel not only helped India develop stronger defence and economic relations with Tel Aviv, but also enabled New Delhi to move past old ideological alignments and engage a wider number of Middle Eastern actors, notably to further its energy and economic interests.
So Narasimha Rao was a great policy entrepreneur who adroitly exploited the international, regional and domestic changes to push for a change in India’s approach to the Middle East, and notably a normalization of ties with Israel. He could be told as the sole driver who initiated the policy shift in development of our ties with Israel.
Conclusion
What we have seen is India moved from a being an established player in supporting regional conflicts, like our role in Suez, Lebanon under Nehru, to aligning with specific privileged partners in the region Egypt, Iraq, and finally to engaging in with all possible actors and interests in the region until the 1990s.
The future posts will summarise/asses Modi’s role in influencing India’s Middle East policy since 2014. Hope you enjoyed this read and stay tuned for the next part.
Thank you!
