154 d omestic politicswas the deputy prime minister under Indira Gandhi. Drawing a parallel
between the Jews in the United States and Indian Muslims, Desai told
his American interlocutor: “There must not be more than fi ve million
Jews in the USA. If this is considered a very large population and you
have to be infl uenced by this, there are fi fty- fi ve million Muslims in In-
dia. Would that not be considered as a very strong argument for India?”^46
As prime minister, Desai hosted the incognito visit of Moshe Dayan, the
Israeli foreign minister, in 1977. His decision to keep the visit under
wraps was interpreted by the Israeli leader as an attempt to prevent any
negative reactions from the domestic Muslim population: “If the news of
my visit to him [Desai] now were to be published, he said, he [Desai] would
be out of offi ce.”^47
The desire of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to disclose Dayan’s secret
visit during the state assembly elections in 1980 was primarily motivated
by electoral considerations. Foreign policy had rarely been an election is-
sue in India, but raising this during elections to the state assemblies was
a move driven by po liti cal calculations. By highlighting the Janata lead-
ers’ playing host to the Israeli foreign minister, she accused the opposi-
tion of abandoning the traditional Indian position and moving closer to
Israel. This implied that Muslims should not place their faith in parties
that were warming to Israel. The pressure was so intense that the leader
of the Janata Party, Jagjivan Ram, had to meet Arab ambassadors in New
Delhi and reiterate his party’s commitments to Arabs and Palestinians.^48
Some se nior functionaries even sought to distance the party from
Dayan’s visit.^49
Commenting on the Indian position during the Kuwait crisis, one aca-
demic observed:
What is especially unfortunate is that Indian freedom of action has
been curtailed by tailoring Indian goals in the region of west Asia
to what are believed to be predominant views of Indian Muslims....
Instead of developing internal consensus through open debate, In-
dia’s West Asia policy has become a phenomenon of domestic ap-
peasement of Indian Muslims, without understanding the prudent
and legitimate interests of all Indians, including Indian Muslims.^50Not only the government but even the INC, which was then the main op-
position party, led by Rajiv Gandhi, “took a pro- Iraq stand in order to win
the Muslims’ vote.”^51