Iraq supports India on Kashmir

[Guest guest]

Yashwant Sinha, federal external affairs minister, told a session of

the Rajya Sabha (Upper House or House of Elders in the Parliament)

that Iraq under President Saddam Hussein has been a friend of India.

He should not feel let down. India's support for Iraq is principled

and constant.

 

Sinha met with Arab ambassadors in New Delhi last August. At that

time too, he had stated the government's stand that the use of force

against any nation was completely unacceptable. We are very clear

that there should be no armed action against any country, more

particularly with the avowed purpose of changing a regime, Sinha

said. Iraq had every right to deter any U.S. possible attack, he

added.

 

During his meeting with Arab diplomats Sinha emphatically stated that

if the world did not refuse U.S. behavior against anti-imperialist

regimes and patriotic governments, such as Iraq, it would be a

license for the U.S. to have more attacks on other states. He

said, "In the name of Indian government I call on all the world

states, especially Arabs, to announce their solidarity with Iraq and

to refuse any military action against it."

 

Iraqi Ambassador to India, Salah Al-Mukhtar hoped that Indian policy

would be much clearer. Now, India has fully understood that any war

against Iraq besides the absence of legal coverage will affect

directly its major interests.

 

India's sound backing of Iraq this time round is not without any

reason. New Delhi has high stakes particularly in the Gulf region

because it imports most of its crude oil from here. Besides, 3.5

million Indian expatriates are presently working in Iraq.

 

Also, historically and traditionally, India has strong political and

economic relations with that country. Among few Arab states, Iraq is

one of them to have supported India on Kashmir issue. Besides, the

infrastructure in Iraq has been largely built by Indian firms.

 

However, during the 1991 Gulf War, India, for reasons best known to

its leaders, demonstrated a flip-flop attitude regarding its stand on

Iraq. On one hand, the then external affairs minister Inder Kumar

Gujral flew to Baghdad to commiserate with Saddam Hussein, while on

the other Chandrashekhar government surreptitiously allowed refueling

facilities to U.S. military planes in India.

 

Indian Muslims, the second-largest Muslim community in terms of

population in the world after Indonesia, would feel further alienated

if India tries to deviate from its self-professed stand and rashly

supports a war, overtly or covertly, against Iraq without UN

sanction.