Is BJP’s fascination for Israel compromising New Delhi’s judgment?

India was not until recently accused of political assassinations on foreign soil. Now it must defend its reputation against such accusations made by Canada and the US.

The current handlers of the Indian State have great admiration for Israel and have diplomatically stood in the grey area in failing to condemn outright the ‘genocide’ in Gaza and the invasion of Lebanon.

This is a break from our past as independent India, birthed just a year before Israel was created in 1948, always spoke for the rights of occupied people. As a post-colonial nation itself, India traditionally stood with the Palestinians and began full diplomatic relations with Israel only in 1992.

Since then, the nature of the Indian State has changed and in the Narendra Modi era it is helmed by those who subscribe to an ideology that admires Tel Aviv’s muscular nationalism. Modi would be the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel and his regime has established deep links in sharing intelligence and defence technology.

The idea of a nation surrounded by enemies in the region is a reality for Israel has been facing Palestinian anger from the time of its creation as that involved annexing the lands of other people — people who had nothing to do with the genocide of Jews in Europe.

Currently, Israel seeks to depopulate north Gaza and annex those lands even as it bombs parts of Lebanon to smithereens. All of this is happening while its population is protected by one of the world's most sophisticated air defence shields and most homes have bunkers where residents take shelter at the sounds of sirens.

India faces no real and imminent danger of this kind. The Khalistan movement was a reality of another era. India is a vast populated land of multiple languages, regions, and religions. However, India’s dominant political force subscribes to a classic Right-wing ideology that says that the majority is always under threat from the minority. So, while former United States president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may infamously say that immigrants are eating cats and dogs, Modi, during the 2024 election campaign, said that should the Congress come to power the mangalsutras of women would be snatched and given to their “special people” (Muslims).

The Right-wing across the world harps on the ‘others’, minorities, immigrants, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and people of colour, coming to get the good people of the land.

The ideology of the Hindu Right if examined through the works of ideologues, V D Savarkar and M S Golwalkar has a paranoid view of Muslim aggression and the disruption through invasion of what is otherwise presented as an idyllic Hindu social order. The threat from minorities is harped on, be it through invasion, aggression, seduction, or reproduction. Simultaneously, the idea of the muscular aggressive Hindu is promoted throughout their thoughts.

In the imagination of the Right-wing stormtroopers, the minorities are a constant threat/menace, and need to be shown their place. So, domestically, Indian Muslims continue to be targeted, be it through bulldozing their homes, organising fake encounters, putting them out of business, and abusing and threatening them. That is now a constant in the atmospherics. The identification with Israel comes from the fact that a radicalised member of the Hindu Right does not see Muslim life of any value, and would possibly want to see the entire community disenfranchised.

So, while the Indian broadcast media was quite worked up about attacks on Hindus during the recent troubles in Bangladesh, there is no commensurate conversation in the media about the bloodbath of Palestinians. There is, therefore, little possibility of this stratum having sympathy for the dead and maimed children, or the starving, homeless people of Gaza. It was Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, with her Nehruvian roots, who spoke most strongly and effectively against the bloodbath in Gaza.

Attempts to have protests have also been swiftly shut down by the police obviously under instructions from the New Delhi regime that is suspicious of any protest. We have completely deviated from the morality of the past, defined by Gandhi and Nehru. India no longer speaks as a moral voice for the Global South and it was indeed South Africa, that moved the International Court of Justice against Israel. Another big nation, Brazil too speaks strongly for the rights of Palestinians and against the immorality of what Israel is doing. India has taken no significant moral posture at international platforms over the past decade.

Even if the Modi regime identifies with Israel as a nation encircled by ‘bad Muslims’ it errs in trying to emulate them — if we believe recent news. Historically, Israel has assassinated individuals perceived to be its enemies on foreign soil. In September, Israel killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah with some deep intelligence and targeted bombing in Beirut; in July, in an audacious operation, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated while on a visit to Tehran. His replacement, Yahya Sinwar, was reported killed in Gaza on October 17, but that was in a traditional combat with Israeli forces.

India was not until recently accused of political assassinations on foreign soil. But that’s changed with Canada and the US accusing Indian agents of seeking to kill their citizens, both Sikhs advocating the Khalistan cause. Now we have been caught in an embarrassing story that the world is circulating although the Indian media is trying to downplay it.

The difference between Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP’s first prime minister, and Narendra Modi is that although both come from the same ideological family, one understood that India was a porous diverse nation, while the latter seems to believe in the doctrine of a hard State — to be achieved through agencies be they the ED or the R&AW/IB. The story emerging from Canada and the US involving jailed gangsters and assassination plots is weird and quite inexplicable.

New Delhi could also ask its friends in the US why they always look the other way in the case of Israel but seem to be doing nothing to cover up what they call India’s botched assassination plot on US soil. As for the Canadians, India is denying every charge. This is what happens when flights of imagination culminate in botched operations.

(Saba Naqvi is a journalist and author.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.