Arabian knights

That political rhetoric overshadowed diplomatic substance during External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee8217;s talks in Tehran this week should surprise no one. For the UPA, Mukherjee8217;s visit, by design, was about domestic gesture politics. The government seems to think it needs to constantly reassure communist allies and a section of the Congress that India is not sacrificing its interests in Iran for the sake of an improved relationship with the US. It is unfortunate that the UPA has persuaded itself that Iran is the yardstick by which the 8216;independence8217; of its foreign policy should be measured. The realists in the government know that there is little India can do to bail out Tehran from the nuclear mess it finds itself in.

Mukherjee8217;s publicly expressed opposition in Tehran to further 8216;coercion8217; against Iran has no real consequence in policy terms. India will be bound, as the rest of the world, in implementing the UN sanctions against Iran, backed by Tehran8217;s presumed best friends in Beijing and Moscow. To be sure, India has a broader bilateral agenda 8212; including energy security 8212; with Iran, which must be pursued irrespective of Washington8217;s preferences. Iran, however, has proved to be a slippery interlocutor 8212; whether it is the planned pipeline linking India and Iran through Pakistan or the supply of liquefied natural gas. Even as New Delhi rejected US pressures against its energy cooperation with Iran, Tehran has queered the pitch on the price of the natural gas and held back prior agreements.

Common sense suggests that domestic politics cannot be completely separated from foreign policy. If the UPA government wants to leverage national diplomacy for domestic political ends, it would be a lot smarter to focus on the Arab Gulf. Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf kingdoms are the principal source of India8217;s petroleum needs and host nearly six million Indian expatriate labour. As Iran pursues its nuclear weapon programme in defiance of the world, the Arab Gulf is deeply concerned about Tehran8217;s potential regional dominance. Yet, neither Mukherjee nor Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have found time to travel to the Arab Gulf.