India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj finally participated in the plenary session of the strategically significant 50-year-old Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on March 1 as a Guest of Honour. It is a major victory and achievement for India’s diplomatic drive to be represented at a gathering of representatives from 57 Muslim-majority nations as a matter of right. At last, its claim of being home to the world’s second largest Muslim population has got established. With this, Indian diplomacy has added another significant feather to its cap.
UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who extended the invitation to India in his country’s capacity as the host nation, made it clear that a “friendly country of India has been named as the Guest of Honour in view of its great global political stature as well as its time-honoured and deeply rooted cultural and historical legacy, and its important Islamic component.”
Welcoming the UAE gesture, which must have come after concerted consultations with the OIC’s key members like Saudi Arabia, India said, “We see this invitation as the desire of the enlightened leadership of the UAE to go beyond our rapidly growing close bilateral ties and forge a true multifaceted partnership at the multilateral and international level.” India considers it a “milestone in our comprehensive strategic partnership with the UAE”.
The OIC invitation, the first such development after the organisation came into being in 1969 as a “collective voice of the Muslim world”, has special significance as the first such a gesture to India asking for sending an official delegation to the Islamic Summit Conference (as it was then called) in Rabat, Morocco, in September 1969, was cancelled at the 11th hour owing to Pakistan’s opposition and aggressive lobbying. Senior Congress leader Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who later became India’s President, had already reached Morocco to take part in the conference, but could not attend even a single session, unfortunately.
The Rabat fiasco led to the straining of India’s relations with Morocco as well as Jordan, owing to Rabat succumbing to Islamabad’s pressure and “on account of Jordan’s attitude towards India’s participation” in the conference. India ultimately withdrew its Ambassador from Rabat (Morocco) and its Charge de’affaires from Amman (Jordan).
But since then the world has undergone a metamorphosis with India emerging as the world’s fastest growing, third largest in purchasing power parity and sixth largest economy in terms of GDP with an impeccable track record on different fronts. The growth cake is being shared by all sections of the population, including Muslims, the second largest religious group in the country. It would be, therefore, unfair to ignore India by any grouping which has a Muslim or Islamic tag to it.
The announcement regarding the OIC’s invitation to India was simultaneously made on February 23 from Abu Dhabi and New Delhi “as a welcome recognition of the presence of 185 million Muslims in India (as per the official figures) and of their contribution to its pluralistic ethos, and of India’s contribution to the Islamic world”.
However, unofficially, India had already been sounded about it, making it clear that New Delhi should get ready to participate in the inaugural plenary of the 46th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC as the Guest of Honour on March 1-2. This was done to prevent India’s opponents (Pakistan, to be specific) from making much fuss about it as the entire Muslim world had a view contrary to that of Islamabad.
A proposal for the OIC’s invitation to India as an observer was made last year too by Bangladesh, but it failed to bring about the desired result.
Since the OIC this time had made up its mind in this regard after much consultation among its influential members, the killing of 40 CRPF personnel in a terrorist attack at Pulwama (J&K) and the developments that followed had no impact on it. Pakistan’s open demand for withdrawing the invitation to India too failed to affect the decision of the UAE. Of course, the OIC, on Pakistan’s request, summoned an emergency meeting of its Kashmir Contact Group at its General Secretariat in Riyadh and expressed its concern over the heightened tension between India and Pakistan, and called for immediate de-escalation in the region. But, as reports suggest, this was done as a mere formality so that nothing came in the way of India’s participation in the OIC foreign ministers’ conclave.
It has been generally noticed that every OIC session leads to a statement on Kashmir, embarrassing for India. The responsible grouping of Muslim-majority countries can contribute to easing tensions in South Asia and elsewhere if it refuses to see things with a jaundiced eye, remaining unaffected by pressures from any quarters.
The time has come for the OIC to think dispassionately and come out with a view not favouring any nation simply because it happens to be a Muslim-majority one. It should go by what is the truth, as the grouping sees it, so that its reactions and suggestions are taken with greater seriousness. It should try to ensure that sanity prevails everywhere in the world and human blood is not shed on any pretext.
The OIC’s voice may carry enhanced appeal if it starts speaking openly against extremism and terrorism of all forms and shades as any activity involving violence, leading to wars, only complicates the issues concerned. A resort to the use of military muscle or terror tactics has never solved any problem anywhere in the world. What happened in Afghanistan and countries in the Middle East should serve as the recent best example to come to the conclusion that wars can never help solve a problem.
Diplomacy and dialogue have been found to be far more effective than the use of violent means to settle even a festering dispute. Such a process, a peaceful one, can take time, but it will ultimately bring out the desired result. The US, the sole surviving super power, now prefers using diplomacy, mostly its coercive variety, to settle disputes and ease tensions. One can notice this in the cases of North Korea, Iran, Turkey and countries in West Asia.
Nowadays it is busy holding talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan so that Washington can withdraw its remaining 14000 troops from the war-ravaged country and create an environment for the Taliban’s participation in the government in Kabul. The US has spent billions of dollars and lost the lives of hundreds of its well-trained soldiers to eliminate the Taliban, but without success.
Therefore, the OIC should use its diplomatic skill to mediate between India and Pakistan to get the issues involved settled with a view to ensuring peace in the region. There is need to create an environment so that the entire humanity, including those living in South Asia, home to a vast number of the world’s poor, develop a stake in peace and progress.