India has among the largest Diasporas in the world spread across many countries, including those that do not exactly have the best relations with it. The remittances they send home are a major source of foreign exchange. It naturally follows that due attention should be paid to their well-being and interests. This requires, particularly, more proactive diplomacy that anticipates rather than reacts to problems.
The recent announcement of death sentences against eight Indian ex-Navy personnel by Qatar, and, earlier, the leveraging by Canada of its Indian-origin population to score diplomatic points are examples of this emerging challenge. Even more troublesome is the lack of an effective international compact that would compel nations to abide by certain conventions. Democratic nations may feel obliged by public opinion to follow certain humanitarian principles, but the more opaque and autocratic ones care little for such things. As such, matters have to be dealt with purely on a bilateral basis.
To begin with, India should begin rating countries on the basis of rule of law to inform those seeking to emigrate about the dangers they may face. There are also countries that have quite modern governance models but are very strict in some matters which Indians need to be careful of, such as Singapore and Malaysia. The increasing quality of India’s human resources has raised demand in other countries, but being employed by a large corporation, for instance, does not mean that the required support would be available if one falls foul of the law.
India’s foreign policy, traditionally, has been quite ‘isolationist’ because of past experience. It is wary of foreign interference in its affairs, so it has also kept clear of involvement in the politics of other countries. Of late, this has been changing, as much out of compulsion as design, but it still has a long way to go. As such, it lacks the instruments required when a challenge emerges, as presently in Qatar. It is not just a question of building good relations, there also has to be the potential to punish in some way. Otherwise, with the presence of large Indian populations, countries could be even more tempted to use them as ‘hostages’ to influence Indian policy. It is also a reason to build deeper diplomatic and economic relations only with nations that have a transparent and accountable system of governance. In the case of others, it should be strictly transactional and not based on mere trust and goodwill.
