India and the OIC
Source: By Shubhajit Roy: The Indian Express
On 29 November 2020, India hit out at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for making factually incorrect and unwarranted references to Jammu and Kashmir. The 47th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers on 27-29 November 2020 at Niamey, Niger, had made a reference to India over its policies on J&K.
In a statement, India advised the OIC to refrain from making such references in future and said it is regrettable that the grouping continues to allow itself to be used by a certain country “which has an abominable record on religious tolerance, radicalism and persecution of minorities”. This was a reference to Pakistan.
The OIC — formerly Organisation of the Islamic Conference — is the world’s second largest inter-governmental organisation after the UN, with a membership of 57 states. The OIC’s stated objective is “to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world”. OIC has reserved membership for Muslim-majority countries. Russia, Thailand, and a couple of other small countries have Observer status.
At the 45th session of the Foreign Ministers’ Summit in 2018, Bangladesh, the host, suggested that India, where more than 10% of the world’s Muslims live, should be given Observer status, but Pakistan opposed the proposal.
In 1969, India was dis-invited from the Conference of Islamic Countries in Rabat, Morocco at Pakistan’s behest. Then Agriculture Minister Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was dis-invited upon arrival in Morocco after Pakistan President Yahya Khan lobbied against Indian participation.
In 2019, India made its maiden appearance at the OIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting, as a “guest of honour”. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj addressed the Inaugural Plenary in Abu Dhabi on 1 March 2019, after having been invited by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Foreign Minister. The Ministry of External Affairs said then that the invitation was 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”.
This first-time invitation was seen as a diplomatic victory for New Delhi, especially at a time of heightened tensions with Pakistan following the Pulwama attack. Pakistan had opposed the invitation to Swaraj, and its Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi boycotted the plenary after the UAE turned down his demand to rescind the invitation.
The OIC has been generally supportive of Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir, and has issued statements criticising the alleged Indian “atrocities” in the state/Union Territory. These statements over the last three decades became an annual ritual, of little significance to India.
Last year, after India revoked Article 370 in Kashmir, Pakistan lobbied with the OIC for their condemnation of the move. To Pakistan’s surprise, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — both top leaders among the Muslim countries — issued nuanced statements, and were not as harshly critical of New Delhi as Islamabad had hoped.
Over the last one year, Islamabad has tried to rouse sentiments among the Islamic countries, but only a handful of them — Turkey and Malaysia — publicly criticised India.
In 2019 Mecca summit as well the OIC criticised the alleged Indian “atrocities” in the state.
In 2018, the OIC General Secretariat had “expressed strong condemnation of the killing of innocent Kashmiris by Indian forces in Indian-occupied Kashmir”, described the “direct shooting at demonstrators” as a “terrorist act”, and “called upon the international community to play its role in order to reach a just and lasting solution to the conflict in Kashmir”.
The 2017 session of the OIC Foreign Ministers had adopted a resolution “reaffirming the unwavering support for the Kashmiri people in their just cause”, and “expressing deep concern at atrocious human rights violations being committed by the Indian occupation forces since 1947”.
At the 2018 meeting in Dhaka, however, “Jammu and Kashmir” figured in only one of 39 resolutions adopted, that too, along with 12 other states or regions worldwide. Pakistan accused Bangladesh of circulating the text very late. Even the resolution in Abu Dhabi, adopted the day after Swaraj spoke, condemned “atrocities and human rights violations” in Kashmir.
India has consistently underlined that J&K is an “integral part of India and is a matter strictly internal to India”. The strength with which India has made this assertion has varied slightly at times, but never the core message. It has maintained its “consistent and well known” stand that the OIC had no locus standi.
This time, India went a step ahead and said the grouping continues to allow itself to be used by a certain country “which has an abominable record on religious tolerance, radicalism and persecution of minorities”.
Individually, India has good relations with almost all member nations. Ties with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, especially, have looked up significantly in recent years.
The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was a very special chief guest at the 68th Republic Day celebrations in 2017, the first time India had laid out the Republic Day red carpet for a leader who was neither a head of state nor a head of government. The Crown Prince had earlier visited India in February 2016, following a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the UAE in August 2015.
Days before the OIC invitation to Swaraj in 2019, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman had visited India. The invite may have been an important outcome of the MBS visit, apart from being an indication of India’s improved ties with both Saudi and the UAE.
Before Swaraj’s visit to Abu Dhabi, a report by the official Emirates News Agency had described India as a “friendly country” of “great global political stature”. The External Affairs Ministry had said the invitation indicated “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” and a “milestone in our comprehensive strategic partnership with the UAE”.
The OIC includes two of India’s close neighbours, Bangladesh and Maldives. Indian diplomats say both countries privately admit they do not want to complicate their bilateral ties with India on Kashmir, but play along with OIC.
