Except for the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and the 1988 Sri Lankan Crisis, India as a matter of policy, does not intervene militarily in any international conflicts or insurgencies in other countries overtly or covertly. Its traditional policies are peaceful solutions of all unilateral, bilateral and multinational problems through negotiations and dialogue without the use of economic warfare, force or attrition. Also, India is a big developing country with the second largest population in the world and the the fastest growing economy. Rather than wasting scarce resources by intervening in military conflicts, India would rather spend its meager resources in building war torn economies around the world. Even nearer home within South Asia, except for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as mentioned earlier, India has not been involved militarily in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq in the Middle East. That does not mean India is insensitive to the sufferings of the poor people of the Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq. As a matter of fact, India is the largest contributor in the rebuilding infrastructure of the war which devastated Afghanistan and many a times its embassy, consulates and engineers and work force personnel have been attacked by the Pakistan sponsored Taliban on various construction sites around Kabul and in the remote areas. PM Modi on 4 June, 2016 inaugurated the $290 million Salma Dam which will provide up to 42 MW power to the country’s most rapidly-growing industrial hub, electricity to around 2.5 million houses and irrigate agricultural land in 640 parched villages around the area. Likewise, India has constructed a new parliament building, schools and hospitals in the devastated land and often our work force has been attacked by the Pakistani sponsored terrorists in Afghanistan.
Some of the major Indian irritants amongst the EU nations, the US and to a large extent with Russia and China are India’s non-aligned policy and neutrality. India’s non-intervention in the Syrian fiasco has irritated the US and the EU to some extent. But the world community needs to be rest assured that once peace prevails in the region, war zone is demilitarized and ISIS contained if not destroyed, both Iraq and Syria would be supported immensely in rehabilitating devastated countries. India will large heatedly aid in the re-construction of the basic infrastructure and medical aid in treatment of the sick and the wounded in the war. India will also contribute liberally troops for the UN peace keeping operations and assist UN agencies and numerous international NGOs in humanitarian aid resolving the refugees’ related issues. We have good experience in tackling the refugee problems as we had millions of Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan Tamil refugees sheltered in India during their wars in 1971 and 1988 respectively.
Another reason of India’s non-intervention was that India traditionally had good relations with Iraq from Saddam’s time as it supplied large quantities of the basic crude and petroleum products desperately needed by India for its domestic consumption. As far as Syria was concerned, India has always opposed overthrowing of the Assad government. Sectarian violence and divide between Shias and Sunnis in the Syrian-Iraqi war zone is very deep. India as a non-Muslim country, has the largest Muslim population in the world. After Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim state, India has more Muslims than Pakistan. Also, after Iran, it has the largest Shia population and any Indian military involvement in these two countries would be a very volatile issue for the otherwise large segments of the peaceful Shias and the Sunnis forming sizable population, for India’s domestic peace and tranquility.
Like Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries, India maintained good relations with Assad and as the member of the non-aligned movement (NAM), Syria supported India in its various initiatives including permanent membership in the UNSC. India supported “Syria’s claim on the Golan Heights while Syria reciprocated that Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) was a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan to resolve amicably that does not need international intervention. India does not like to interfere in the internal dynamics of any country, whether that country is an autocracy, democracy, monarchy or military ruled so long there is good governance and no human rights violations and conflicts with the other neighboring countries.
The genesis of the complex present problem commenced with the US invasion of Iraq over its capturing of Kuwait in 2003. Many of Saddam Hussein’s soldiers deserted the Iraqi Army and joined the insurgent militias which later became the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Sunnis in Iraq also joined Al Qaida which became part and parcel of ISIS that controlled sizable parts of Iraq. Meanwhile, all Sunnis were removed from the important government jobs and replaced by Shias and the conflict became more complex and worse with both holding on to areas under their respective domination and enlarging that with terrorist acts respectively against each other, thus, dividing the country and ruining its economy, peace and stability with thousands of innocent people killed and agriculture and refineries and oil well destroyed. Meanwhile, ISIS became a major player holding large parts of Syria bordering Iraq, including the oil fields that were major sources of its revenue along with smuggling of drugs, opium, arms and ammunition and hawala transactions. Soon Fallujah and Mosul fell in Iraq and in January 2014, ISIS declared the establishment of the Islamic Emirate ruled by the strictest Sharia laws and both Iran and Saudi Arabia plunged in the war supporting the rival Shia and Sunni militant outfits. With the fall of Kirkuk, the Kurds residing along the borders of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Georgia and Armenia also joined in the fray smelling the possibility of an independent Kurdish homeland. The US, the EU and the Russians joined in supporting rivals with conflicting interests and the EU had to face the greatest refugees’ exodus unbalancing their security, peace, tranquility, demography, law and order and hosts of refugee and human rights problems.
Basically, the Indian policy is of non-interference in military conflicts anywhere in the world and resolving problems through dialogue, diplomacy and development. Fighting wars in foreign countries is a very expensive proposition vis-à-vis providing economic and technological aid in reconstruction of war torn economies of the affected nations like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Vietnam. According to Raghu Rajan, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, ‘We are still relatively a poor economy to wipe tears from every eye; we need $ 6,000 per capita income’. Yet, it is heartening, that the Indian diaspora from Afghanistan to Australia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Singapore, the EU , the US, Russia and other nations including China are contributing immensely in their development from construction, medical, nursing, space, atomic energy, teachers and professors, IT and financial fields. No wonder there are 3.22 millions Indian in the US constituting 1.5 % of its population yet 38% of the doctors in the US are Indians, 36% percent of the NASA scientists are Indians and 34 % of the Microsoft employees are Indians (these figures are courtesy Lt Gen Raj Kadyan). Same story goes for the other countries whether affluent like the EU, Australia Singapore or war torn like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or Vietnam. Whenever there is a call for humanitarian aid, India’s response is the quickest, whether it was the worst earthquake in Nepal, flash floods in Bangladesh, massive land slides in Sri Lanka, 15 year long drought in Afghanistan or a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck in Haiti, killing more than 160,000 and displacing close to 1.5 million people where India placed its big contingent in humanitarian aid. Therefore, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq would also get due Indian humanitarian aid once peace and stability prevails there.