We are both ancient civilisations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reminded his audience in Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, on a visit to Tel Aviv in February this year. “Our civilisational traditions also reveal philosophical parallels,” claimed Modi. “In Israel, the principle of Tikkun Olam speaks of healing the world. In India, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam affirms that the world is one family. Both ideas extend responsibility beyond immediate boundaries. They ask societies to act with compassion and moral courage.”

“Judaism emphasises Halakha, guiding everyday conduct through law and practice. Hindu philosophy speaks of Dharma, the moral order that shapes duty and right action,” Prime Minister Modi continued. “In both traditions, ethical life is lived through action, and faith is expressed through conduct.”

Clearly, those profound thoughts were lost on Modi’s host. Israel, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, has demonstrated no commitment to ‘Tikkun Olam’ or Halakka, nor any awareness that the world is one family.

That was on February 25. On February 28, a missile strike destroyed a school in Iran killing over 170 people, mostly young girls in the age group of 7 to 12 years. This action was not guided by Halakka, nor Dharma, nor any principle of civilised conduct. An inhuman machinery of violence, prejudice and hate has been unleashed by a country that pretends to have religious sanction but is in reality the outpost of Western imperialism in resource-rich Asia.

Israel and the United States of America, under the leaderships of Netanyahu and Donald Trump, have become rogue nations. They have engaged in and justified genocide on a scale not seen so far in the 21st century. They deliberately sabotaged diplomacy to illegally attack Iran and kill its leadership, pushing the world economy into crisis and an era of stagflation.

The Indian economy and the Indian people have been seriously impacted by these unilateral and illegal actions of two of their self-proclaimed ‘friends’. Blind-sided by Israel, the Modi government took over a week for a credible response. Since then and for a month now, Indian diplomacy has been deployed to untangle India from the internecine conflicts of West Asia. If India finds itself in an unenviable position today, it is entirely on account of the choices the government has made over the past decade.

With energy prices rising and the economy in uncertain waters, the people of India have been made victims of their government’s ill-advised tilt in relations with countries of West Asia. For decades, India has balanced its relations with the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Israel and Iran. Despite enormous pressure to delink India from Iran, successive governments have tried to balance relations until a few years ago.

While India’s economic and people-to-people links with GCC are wider, deeper and more complex than the rather limited engagement with Iran, maintaining good relations with Iran has also been a priority. Several factors have come to define the India-Iran relationship apart from the oft-touted civilisational links, important as they are. Iran offers India the land route to Central Asia and beyond. Iranian oil remains an important and affordable source of energy.

Mindful of India’s strategic stake in Iran and in pursuit of its long-term strategy of securing Israeli dominance over West Asia, the US has systematically exerted pressure on India to distance itself from Iran. During the negotiations by the former prime minister, Manmohan Singh, with the US for civil nuclear energy, the US insisted India stop purchase of oil from Iran as a pre-condition. Prime Minister Singh had to manage that pressure by hosting the then Iranian
president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in New Delhi. The pro-US lobby
in India was livid while the Left
parties hailed the prime minister’s willingness to keep Iran on India’s side even as he negotiated with
the US.

The decisive turn in India’s relations with West Asia began after 2019 when the Modi government began tilting towards Israel and GCC while reducing dependence
on Iran. India seemed to welcome
a series of US-Israel initiatives aimed at isolating Iran and ensuring a closer relationship among India, Israel and the GCC.

First, there were the Abraham Accords of 2020-21. They sought to normalise relations between Israel and GCC and delink the recognition of Israel from that of the State of Palestine. The Abraham Accords strengthened a regional coalition against Iran under pressure from the US. India viewed the Abraham Accords as a pathway to simultaneously improving relations with GCC and Israel, paying little attention to the fact that their main purpose was to isolate Iran.

In 2021-22, the US took the next step with I2U2 — a coming together of the US, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and India. The agenda of the group was stated to be the identification of “bankable” projects and initiatives to “tackle some of the greatest challenges confronting our world, with a particular focus on joint investments and new initiatives in water, energy, transportation, space, health, food security and technology”. The group’s stated aim was to mobilise private sector capital and expertise aimed at modernising infrastructure, promote low carbon development, and improve public health.

The third US initiative, explicitly aimed at reducing India’s links with Iran and the Persian Gulf, was the India-Middle East-Economic-Corridor, launched during the G20 Summit in New Delhi. Touted as a US-India response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, IMEC offered an alternative route westwards for India that was delinked from dependence on the Red Sea and exposure to the Persian Gulf. Interestingly, all the three initiatives launched between 2020 and 2023 had the imprimatur of both the Joe Biden and the Trump administrations.

Each of these initiatives was hailed by the commentariat in New Delhi either out of habit or in appreciation of closer ties with the US. Taken together, these diplomatic moves in West Asia increasingly tethered India to the Israel-US axis in the region. A nadir was reached when India chose to shut down the Chabahar Port, remain quiet on the assassination of the Iranian leadership, and took its time to respond to the US naval attack on an Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean.

When the tide turned in the Persian Gulf, India had no option but to reach out to Iran, re-establish relations, and seek permission for its ships to sail through the Hormuz Strait. The shortage of energy supplies, the insecurity and economic uncertainty caused by the war, and the growing public opinion against the US finally forced the Modi government to re-examine its ill-considered approach to the region.

Sanjaya Baru was Editor, Business Standard. His most recent book is Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India