Date: June 18th 2008

Date: 18.6.08

Second opinion: Priyadarsi Dutta

It would be ludicrous to believe the statement of visiting Syrian President Bashar Al Assad that India shares much in common with the Arab world. His statement is nothing more than a clever snub at growing Indo-Israeli ties.

No President of Egypt or Syria, two important countries of the Arab world, has visited India since 1980. Our technological, business and cultural ties with Israel, on the other hand, have been blooming since 1992. Even the UPA Government, in the grip of Israel-baiting Left parties, has not been able to find an alternative to this beneficial mutual relationship that the two nations share. Paradoxically, Israel is a major investor in the social sector in Communist-ruled West Bengal.

In October 1999, I was working with the Press Bureau of the Egyptian Embassy in New Delhi when a super cyclone struck Orissa. Our Press Counsellor Mohammed Saber Antar got a list made of all the international help India received. However, there was no help from Egypt, which was supposed to be our "old friend" and "ally".

A few months earlier during the Kargil war we were expecting a favourable statement from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, as Jawaharlal Nehru had stood by Gamel Abdel Nasser during the Anglo-French invasion of the Arab country in 1956. However, Mr Mubarak's silence belied our expectations. Again our Arab friends did precious little when an earthquake struck Gujarat in 2000. On the other hand, a medical team of Israeli marines set up a relief camp before other international agencies could get their act together.

Mr Bashar continues to back Hamas and Hizbullah who are wedded to the agenda of "wiping Israel off from the face of the earth". He is selective towards Israel's occupation of the West Bank, whereas Syria's occupation of Lebanon until a few years ago is forgotten. Syria still continues to have its sway in Lebanon through the Hizbullah, which was raised for destroying Christian Lebanon in the late-1970s.

History bears testimony to the fact that Arabs turned hostile towards India once they adopted Islam. Arabs had tried to conquer India in the eighth century, but were repulsed by the Gujjar-Pratihar dynasty. Since then the relation between the two people hasn't really warmed up.