New Delhi: The invitation to have India as a ‘guest of honour’ at the inaugural plenary of an upcoming Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit comes exactly 50 years after New Delhi faced a major diplomatic embarrassment when it was sent away from the grouping’s first conference due to stiff opposition from Pakistan.
The OIC, established in 1969 at Rabat, Morocco, was conceptualised as a congregation of Muslim countries.
India was seen as a natural member because it had the world’s second-largest Muslim population, a fact that remains true to this day. But Pakistan’s opposition scuttled India’s chances of joining the OIC.
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This year, after a series of failed steps to enlist Indian participation, India was invited as a guest of honour at the 46th session of OIC foreign ministers by United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Accepting the invitation, India said it saw the gesture “as a welcome recognition of the presence of 185 million Muslims in India and of their contribution to its pluralistic ethos, and of India’s contribution to the Islamic world”.
Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will address the plenary, to be held in Abu Dhabi, on 1-2 March.
‘Embracing India’
The OIC currently has 57 members, including Turkey, the UAE, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Talking about the invitation, diplomatic sources told ThePrint that, this year, Saudi Arabia and the UAE had decided to “ignore” Islamabad and “embrace India”.
The gesture is also seen as a result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bilateral meeting with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in New Delhi earlier this week.
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According to former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal, this is also an indication that a large part of the Muslim world is now moving away from “jihad” and extremism and embracing moderate Islam.
“This invitation to India to attend the 46th session of the OIC is a stepping stone to be an ‘observer’ country or become a full member,” said Sibal. “It is also a vindication of India’s policy towards it minorities.”
The snub of 1969
The developments, however, are an eerie reminder of the embarrassment India faced when it was invited to become a member of the Jeddah-based OIC at its maiden conference.
In September 1969, after much diplomatic haggle, India was invited, along with many other countries that had a sizeable Muslim population, to be part of the OIC at Rabat.
The invitation was extended by then King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.
However, the Indian delegation, led by former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, then the minister for industrial development, was turned back from the venue at the eleventh hour due to severe opposition from the Pakistan delegation, which was led by their then President Yahya Khan.
Pakistan and a couple of other countries were upset with the deadly communal riots that had taken place in Ahmedabad the same year, in which almost 2,000 people had lost their lives.
In 1969, India was also offered the status of an observer, but Ahmed turned it down, owing to the humiliation that the Indian delegation had to face.
“This was seen as the lowest point in India’s diplomatic history,” said veteran diplomat Talmiz Ahmad, India’s former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. “Since then, India also never looked back and had nothing to do with OIC,” he added.
“However, Pakistan continued to use the OIC platform to chivvy India, mainly on the Kashmir dispute. But the invitation that has now been extended to India is an attempt to correct the historic wrong. India has a legitimate place at the OIC,” he added.
In 2003, India was once again invited by Qatar to attend the OIC meeting and become a full member of the council. But India had to refuse it since it was not an official invitation and did not enjoy consensus among all members.
Bangladesh’s proposal to grant India ‘observer status’ at last year’s OIC meet was also turned down by Pakistan.
Ahmad said India’s formal entry at the OIC also marks the end of Pakistan’s “reckless” statements against India through the multilateral platform.
Over the years, Pakistan has moved repeated resolutions at the OIC against India and its treatment of Muslims, especially its Kashmir policy. This did not go down well with successive Indian governments as the OIC is largely seen as the “collective voice of the Muslim world”.
In 2017, under the Narendra Modi government itself, India had strongly protested against the OIC’s statements on Kashmir’s right to struggle for their right to self-determination and human rights. India responded by saying that OIC had “no locus standi on India’s internal affairs”.
“We strongly advise the OIC to refrain from making such references in the future,” it added.
This is a remarkable achievement of our Foreign Policy and Hon.Prime Minister’s efforts in meetings heads of Foreign Govts. Let us keep it up.
I remember the Rabat fiasco very well, was in school in Poona. Baburao Patel, a trenchant critic of Mrs Gandhi, used to bring out a magazine called Mother India. He really took the government to the cleaners on this one.
In one sense, as a secular country, India should not be part of a grouping such as the OIC. Had a Congress Government piloted this move, charges of “ minority appeasement “ would have been quick to come. However, one welcomes this development. It acknowledges the fact that India has 200 million Muslims and that the Islamic world is deeply interested in their well being. It casts an obligation on a India to treat its large Muslim minority well. These might seem harsh words, the easy criticism would be that we are a sovereign country, our internal matters, including Kashmir are no one else’s business, but that would be denying reality. The formal statement Prine MbS made in Beijing, acknowledging China’s right to take anti extremism and counter terrorism measures in Xinjiang is simply for the record, in recognition of China’s immense global clout. China is not going up in the Islamic world’s esteem. One looks forward to Rashtrapati Bhavan restoring its annual Iftaar party.
So then it’s a big diplomatic victory for Modi. People should accept it and rejoice. But then we will have hear people giving imaginary accounts of diplomatic loss because of Modi.
So then it’s a big diplomatic victory for Modi. I guess none of the liberals would accept this.