India first

The presence of leaders belonging to the Left parties at a conference brimming with anti-Israel rhetoric should not surprise. The CPM8217;s official journal has persistently made their position unequivocally known. But when an 8216;International Conference on War, Imperialism and Resistance8217; seeks as part of its programme to formulate ways to get members of Parliament to oppose arms trade with Israel, their presence alarms. It betrays a remarkably perverse sense of the national interest.

The Left parties8217; co-option makes troubling in what would otherwise have been just another 8220;intellectual8221; charter of demands? The Left has, as stated, made its position amply clear. And it comes at a time when the architecture of the coalition at the Centre gives communist MPs disproportionate room to lobby and influence policy. Moves to politicise foreign policy on West Asia are especially fraught with the danger of communalisation 8212; for example, the Left parties8217; participation in the public campaign on India8217;s vote at the IAEA on Iran8217;s nuclear programme. India has, ever since P.V. Narasimha Rao8217;s government established diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv in 1992, walked a very nuanced line between optimising its commercial relationship with Israel and expressing genuine concern about he plight of Palestinians. This has been to the good of India8217;s defence preparedness and its wider diplomatic interests.

Now look at the communists8217; only articulation of realism in developing commercial ties with other countries. When the Central government demurred over allowing Chinese companies to bid for key port projects, the Left made a case for a level playing field. This paper applauded that realism. Why China but not Israel? With Israel, defence ties have been especially beneficial, helping tide over post-Soviet armaments supplies in the 1990s as well as the sanctions that came after Pokhran II. Some years ago India replaced Turkey as the largest importer of Israeli arms. If anything, this gives India greater leverage in stating its steady position that the problems of the Palestinians must be addressed. The kind of isolationism proposed by the Left is against logic and national interest.