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Position On A Minaret

Ahmed Javed’s appointment as india’s envoy to Riyadh follows a beaten track. It’s time for a maturer policy.

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Position On A Minaret
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Appeasing religious minorit­ies—Muslims in particular—is a charge the BJP and its Hindutva affiliates have often hur­­led at the Congress. But when it comes to appointing an amb­assador for Saudi Arabia, the Narendra Modi government seems to have fallen back on the same policy as its Congress predecessor: choosing its envoy from a ‘Muslim-only’ pool.

Political appointments to key Indian mis­sions have rarely gone down well with South Block bureaucrats. On occ­asion, when such appointments have involved for­­mer diplomats or someone of stature, like a well-known academic, the protests have been muted. But when can­didates have been selected solely on political considerations, the murmurs among Indian diplomats have grown louder.

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The recent appointment of former Mumbai police commissioner Ahmed Javed as India’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, at a time when the region is going through political churning, has created disquiet among large sections in Delhi’s foreign policy establishment.

“Given the complexity in West Asia and Saudi Arabia’s location right at its centre, we should have had a professional diplomat with a very good knowledge of the region in Riyadh. Not someone who was a policeman till the other day,” says former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal.

While Javed’s competence to deal with the evolving situation in Saudi Arabia and its surroundings is coming into question, many diplomats are also raising what is an important and bothersome issue for them: should India opt only for a Muslim while appointing its ambassador in Riyadh?

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The question gathers greater salience because of Saudi Arabia’s growing strategic importance to India. With three million resident Indians—many of them non-Muslim—it is home to the largest Indian diaspora in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia is the main source of India’s energy and its fourth largest trade partner. India is also looking for Saudi investments to boost its infrastructure development and trying to expand its areas of cooperation with Riyadh.

“Saudi-Indian relations have evolved into a strategic partnership. We need a professional approach to ensure we engage with the Saudi leadership in an effective and robust manner,” says India’s former amb­assador to Riyadh, Talmiz Ahmad.

Saudi Arabia is the only mission in the Islamic world where India has consistently appointed a Muslim as its ambassador since diplomatic relations were established in 1948. Such a policy is not followed during ambassadorial appointments to the Gulf countries or even in Iran, which is ruled by Muslim clergy. Interestingly, New Delhi has mostly posted non-Muslim diplomats to head its mission in Pakistan, even though it has always contested the Pakistani argument that India is a country for Hindus.

“Since we don’t have such a policy (app­ointing Muslim-only ambassadors) even for Pakistan, does it make sense to have one for Saudi Arabia?” asks Sibal.

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So why does India adopt such a unique policy exclusively for Saudi Arabia?

The answer perhaps lies in the way India-­Saudi ties evolved over the years. In the initial days and in its pre-oil boom period, Saudi Arabia drew its importance for India mainly as “custodian of the two holy mos­ques in Mecca and Medina”, for which it was considered leader of the Sunni Muslim world. With India sending one of the largest delegations of pilgrims in the world to Saudi Arabia for the Haj, it made sense to have a Muslim as an ambassador to oversee the arrangements. This also became necessary since Islamic law did not permit non-Muslims to enter Mecca and Medina.

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In addition, neighbouring Jeddah, situated near the two holy mosques, was also the city that housed the foreign office and was the main centre for the country’s political activity. But the foreign office, along with all diplomatic activities, shifted to Riyadh in 1984.

Today, Haj arrangements are taken care of by India’s consul-general in Jeddah and his 400-strong staff, who are rec­ruited both locally and from India. Moreover, the post of secretary (east) in the Union ministry of external affairs, which deals with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, necessarily does not go to a Muslim diplomat.

Senior Indian diplomats point out that most Saudi allies, especially the United States and other western countries, have traditionally appointed non-Muslims as envoys in Riyadh. “But has that come in the way for these countries to build a meaningful relation with the Saudis?” asks a senior MEA official.

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Javed, however, is not the only former police officer to have been chosen for the coveted post. In the past, two other off­icers with a similar background have served as envoys in Riyadh. A number of illustrious Indian career diplomats, like Hamid Ansari, currently the vice president, Ishrat Aziz, Talmiz Ahmad and Hamid Ali Rao, were ambassadors there. But all of them were Muslims.

In fact, the suggestion that India should start appointing non-Muslim diplomats in Riyadh had come from the MEA several years back, but the political leadership has never taken it up seriously. Some feel that the tradition began under the Congress, mainly to ensure that minorities do not feel marginalised in decision-making. The BJP has also opted for continuing with the practice for fear of alienating Muslims further and of being accused of implementing a ‘Hindutva agenda’.

“We don’t have a view on who should be appointed...,” says Niaz Ahmed Farooqi, secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind. “It is a matter of India’s foreign policy that has to be decided by the government, not by any religious community,” he added.

Senior BJP leader and former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha also shares this view. Sinha feels “some of our traditional positions needs to be reworked. There is no reason why we should stick to these old positions”.

It’s a fact that political postings did not begin with Javed and it will not end with him. However, given the increasing complexity in West Asia and Saudi Arabia’s key role in it, the Indian leadership may fin­ally be forced to change its “Muslim-only” policy in appointing its future envoy to the Saudi capital.

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