After war-torn Iraq, Indian nationals are stuck once again in another country in the Arab world — Libya — whose political order was undermined by the marauding Americans in the name of promoting democracy three years ago, giving jihadi fighters a chance to roam freely and threaten the scratchy government put in place after Muammar Gaddafi’s ouster.
The Indian government once again looks helpless. In Iraq, fortunately, a part of the country is in government hands and we could appeal directly to Baghdad. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj went to the extent of urging even jihadists in the name of the holy month of Ramzan to release the nurses trapped within their jurisdiction. The political situation in Libya, however, is far from certain, and the holy month is over. All that we know for sure is that rival militias are fighting it out on the streets of Tripoli to capture the capital.
So bad is the ground situation that the United States locked down its embassy in Tripoli last Saturday. A number of US F-16 fighter jets and other military equipment was at hand when the embassy was vacated. India, of course, is in no position to employ such gun-toting sheriff methods. But getting its nationals out is an imperative.
About 6,000 Indians are believed to be in Libya, primarily workers of various description. Something like 750 of them are nurses, mostly from Kerala. Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy is now under enormous pressure by the Parents’ Association of the nurses to seek the safe return of their daughters with New Delhi’s help. This association became active after the US embassy shut down and the scale of the danger became manifest.
The Kerala group, while naturally concerned over these developments, must consider that there are other Indians as well in Libya, and that the Centre has to make efforts on behalf of all. Mounting public pressure on top leaders can render the government’s already difficult job more complex.
India has traditionally enjoyed a good political rapport with governments and political leaders in the Arab bloc of West Asia and North Africa, but a good deal of this has been given just a transactional hue in recent years, a result essentially of not being diplomatically active by asserting its own independent thinking.
The present government has not just continued that trend. It also omitted to make any mention of the Arab world in the President’s joint address to Parliament recently.Subsequently, it tried to block a debate in Parliament on the conflict now raging in Gaza, making its political position in West Asia tenuous. That can now prove to be a handicap, though we hope that our embassy is working on practical solutions.
