The response which the Government has given following the resentment has also not gone well within BJP because of the twist and the attribution of views expressed on TV to the “fringe” while the individuals who made those comments were very well the public faces of the ruling party, BJP.
But, if one analysis, then it comes to the fore that India’s response to the protest lodged by the Gulf countries has been considerate and balanced so far. The way India has lambasted OIC as well as Pakistan over the issue, something quite opposite to it has been witnessed concerning the countries falling under Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The secret to the difference in the response lies with the interests—largely economic—that India has in the Gulf.
India relies largely, concerning the energy needs, on the Gulf Countries and if the numbers are to be believed then a third of India’s oil imports come from GCC countries, which not only is huge but also presents the dependency of India concerning the energy imports on the countries which are these days not so happy with India. The story does not end here.
The numbers available clear the picture and reveal the secret behind India’s soft and meticulous handling of the matter so far. It is to be noted that the GCC nations account for around 65% of India’s annual remittances of nearly $85 billion. The fact that these are the countries where nearly 9 million Indian migrants work whose presence and being in the work mode is also important and hold a key to India’s economy.
Interestingly, with regard to the trade, these countries, which have raised their voice over the unwarranted comments, also account for over 14% of the country’s global trade. While UAE has also expressed strong resentment over the comments made in India, it would be interesting to note that among GCC countries, the UAE, after US and China, is India’s largest trading partner even as the trade with the UAE is nearly 7% of India’s total trade, which is quite a figure.
There is an array of factors that make Gulf Countries important to India and these factors make it easy to understand why there has been a considerate and sensible response from India this time at least—even to the extent that the BJP ended up sacrificing two of its faces because here, the interests matter more.
