India: Egypt

Mubarak is busy, Please mail the Nehru award

Exclusive to Asian Tribune, Friday, 7 July 2006

The nadir of Indo-Egyptian ties can be gauged by the importance that the latter attaches to the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding conferred upon President Hosni Mubarak. Nearly a decade after the Indian decision, the Egyptian leader is yet to find time or inclination to make a trip to New Delhi and formally receive the award.

This Egyptian behaviour is in contrast to the attitude of others. Of late India has become a favourite destination for many world leaders. None could blame India if it lost count of heads of state and government who are making a beeline to New Delhi. During the last decade it hosted two sitting American Presidents, scores of western leaders and other heads of state. Even countries of the Middle East have also discovered its growing importance and in recent years, India had many visitors including King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, President Mohammed Khatami of Iran and the new Emir of Kuwait.

At times such crowded visits also have their flip side. Overshadowed by the visit of President George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac’s sojourn a few days earlier rarely made ripples in the Indian media.

Cold wind from Cairo

Yet Egyptian leader had no time for India. The attitude of the present Egyptian leadership reflects its changing priority towards India. On a few occasions, Indian diplomats in Cairo publicly declared that New Delhi was looking forward to the visit of President Mubarak but in vain.

In normal circumstances, this should not raise any eyebrows as countries formulate state visits depending upon their relative importance, diplomatic useful and economic potentials.

In case of Egypt however, there is a catch. With much fanfare and some diplomatic calculations on 24 July 1997, an eminent selection committee headed by the then Vice President K R Narayanan nominated Egyptian President Mubarak for the Jawaharlal Nehru award for the year 1995. Besides recognizing the contribution of the Egyptian leader to international peace, especially in the Middle East peace process, the honour was also meant to garner some diplomatic mileage.

Given the negative signals from Cairo over the Indo-Israeli normalization carried out in January 1992, New Delhi hoped that the Nehru award might partly mitigate and assuage Egyptian sensitivities. Indeed, partly to pacify the Egyptian concerns and misgivings in early 1992 New Delhi even opened the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture in Cairo.

Ironically however, nearly a decade later the award is yet to be presented because Mubarak is too busy to visit India. One two occasions, his visit was planned only to be cancelled at the last minute. Once Indian President Narayanan was indisposed and on the second occasion, the ever turbulent Middle East prevented the Egyptian leader from making that trip. Hence, a decade later, Nehru award for 1995 is still languishing in New Delhi.

According to procedures, a seven-member jury headed by the Vice President selects the awardees, with the Chief Justice of India functioning as ex-officio member. Thus, since July 1997 when Mubarak was selected for the award, India had seen two new vice presidents and as many as nine new Chief Justices.

The miss appears deliberate. For over a decade Mubarak has skipped even multilateral meetings hosted by India. In 1993 for example, at the last moment he cancelled his participation in the much publicised G-15 summit of developing countries. Similar moves by others resulted in the summit being postponed to 1994 but Mubarak still failed to show up. Partly to express his displeasure, in May 1998 Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee skipped the G-15 summit this time hosted by Cairo.

Without mentioning Mubarak by name, in December 2002 the government told the Rajya Sabha, “The Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for the year 1995 was awarded in the year 1997. Despite concerted efforts having been made, the Awardee has not yet been able to come to India to receive the award.”

Proudly admitting the honor conferred upon its leader, the official cite of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry proudly maintains “India continuously renews the invitation to President Mubarak to … receive the prize.” But it offers no any explanation for the prolonged hesitation on the part of the Egyptian leader.

Time to change

By conferring awards named after leaders such as Nehru, India hopes to secure and promote its interests in foreign lands. Indeed, they play an important role in India’s cultural diplomacy. In it in this context one should view the efforts by the Indian foreign office to name principal streets and corners in different parts of the globe after Mahatma Gandhi.

Cultural diplomacy has often played an important role in India’s foreign relations, especially in the Middle East. With the aim of promoting Indian influence and culture artists, dancers, film stars and other cultural teams regularly visit the region and elsewhere. “Anthony” Bachchan still remains more popular in the Arab world than any other Indian icon, past or present.

Even if one were to ignore the absence of reciprocal gesture, the failure of Egypt to arrange Mubarak’s visit indicate the current status of the Indo-Egyptian ties. Even the highly publicised visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in September 2003 was insufficient to instil a sense of urgency in Cairo’s diplomatic calculations vis-à-vis India.

The attitude of the present Egyptian leadership towards India is in total contrast to the hay days of the 1950s when Nehru’s friendship with Gamal Abdul Nasser dominated India’s Middle East policy. Cairo was for a constant fixture in Nehru’s periodic sojourns to Europe and both leaders met nearly a dozen times. Indeed, in its early days much of India’s Middle East policy was influenced by the Nehru-Nasser factor.

Things have changed and so is the Egyptian worldview. Likewise time has come for New Delhi to re-examine its cultural diplomacy. With the next announcement of Nehru award around the corner, India should evaluate the political importance that the awardees attach to such honours. If India does not take the memory of its venerable leaders more seriously, others will not.

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