It is doubtful whether as India’s Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi would wish to engage in a serious effort to find solutions to various conflicts in West Asia. She would know that the problems are too complex to yield to well-meant advice, that India has no clout whatever in dealing with either Israel or any Arab country or the rival factions within the PLO, and that the country cannot possibly intervene effectively in an area where the interests of great powers are deeply involved. She is too shrewd and experienced a person not to draw the appropriate lesson from the miserable failure of so powerful a grouping as the European Economic Community (EEC) to make the slightest difference to the course of events in West Asia and not to note the fact that once the oil position had eased, EEC governments had quietly dropped the issue, with each nation concentrating on maintaining and, if possible, expanding its lucrative business with the Arabs. Mrs. Gandhi is a realist. As such she would also recognise that most oil-rich Arabs have a strong preference for closer ties with Pakistan for both religious and political reasons, that whatever India does to advance their interests cannot offset Pakistan’s advantages as a Muslim country and an ally of the United States, and that India’s interests do not necessitate a hyper-active role on her part.
It would appear that as chairperson of the non-aligned movement and as head of the eight-member committee on Palestine, she regards it her duty to seek solutions to the intractable problems in West Asia. She recently received Mr. Yasser Arafat when his leadership of the PLO was under serious attack by dissidents within Al Fatah, the biggest armed group among the Palestinian guerrillas, and Syria. Since then his position has steadily weakened. Last week she dispatched a secretary in the ministry of external affairs to the region. Perhaps the Arab leaders the secretary has met have made some polite noises about Mrs. Gandhi. It is also natural that the country’s principal news agency should have reported their appreciation of her efforts and newspapers should have published it prominently. But it will be a pity if we take these things at their face value. The Arabs who matter do not take the non-aligned movement all that seriously; they are not to blame because they know that it cannot tilt the power balance in their favour. And who are “they” whom Mrs. Gandhi as chairperson of the non-aligned movement is trying to help? The Arabs have seldom been as badly divided as now and so utterly incapable of producing a coherent response to any initiative by anyone. We can regret it. But there is precious little we can do about it.