Author: C Raja Mohan
Publication: ExpressIndia.com
Date: November 6, 2006
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=76680
The government's decision to express concern
at the death sentence handed to the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
might please the domestic pressure groups, including the Communist parties,
but would do little to ease India's deepening diplomatic contradictions in
the Gulf.
While the ultimate punishment to Saddam Hussein
has been certainly criticised for many reasons, and not just in the Muslim
world, the two governments in Iran and Iraq are celebrating it.
Irrespective of its intent, the Indian reaction,
issued in the name of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is bound
to irritate Washington, Baghdad and Tehran in one stroke. That surely takes
some doing.
Mukherjee's statement acknowledged that Saddam
Hussein can appeal against the verdict. It expressed the concern that "such
life and death decisions require credible due process of law, which does not
appear to be victor's justice and is acceptable to the people of Iraq as well
as the international community."
Mukherjee also expressed the hope that the
"verdict will not add to the suffering of the people of Iraq". India's
hopes are unlikely to make much of a difference to the Iraqi realities.
For the verdict is bound to deepen the current
violence between the Shia majority and the Sunni minority in Iraq.
It would have been logical to expect that
the Congress leadership that burnt its hands on Iraq before would have thought
through the implications before sounding sympathetic to Saddam Hussein.
The Congress party, which barely a year ago
had to sacrifice its loyal External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh for his
dalliance with Saddam Hussein, appears to have learnt little. For the Congress,
the Middle East remains a curse it cannot seem to shake off.
The pious, but inconsequential, sentiment
for peace in Iraq pouring out the UPA government once again reflects a historic
pattern in Indian foreign policy.
The official Indian reactions to the developments
in the Middle East have always tended to be guided by domestic political considerations,
rather than the facts on the ground.
The crime for which Saddam Hussein has been
put on the death row, was his involvement in the massacre of 148 Shias in
Iraq more than two decades ago. The Shia majority of Iraq, which dominates
the present government in Iraq but was denied its religious and political
freedom under Saddam Hussein, naturally feels justice has finally been done.
The Sunni minority in Iraq, which feels disempowered
after the ouster of Saddam Hussein and provides support to the current violent
insurgency in Iraq, has unsurpisingly dismissed the verdict as motivated.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has become
a strong supporter of Shia majority rule in Iraq, not only welcomes the verdict
but also insists that Saddam Hussein be tried for his crimes against the Iranian
nation during the eight year war (1980-88) in which he used chemical weapons.
