In the words of Surjit Mansingh: “The fi rst Islamic Summit Confer-
ence opened with a hall fi lled with internationally known Muslim leaders,
plus a fully bearded and turbaned Sikh representing India.”^52 Echoing
similar sentiments, J. N. Dixit, the former foreign secretary, remarked that
while India was invited, “we botched up the opportunity by indulging in
an impractical exercise in assertive secularism by deciding to depute
our Sikh Ambassador in Morocco to represent India at this meeting.
Pakistan took full advantage of this ineptitude of ours and ensured our ex-
clusion from the OIC, despite our having the second largest Muslim popu-
lation in the world.”^53 No one could have scripted a greater irony: a turbaned
Sikh diplomat at an Islamic gathering!
Pakistan capitalized on this ironic situation, and anti- Muslim riots in
some parts of India provided additional ammunition. President Yahya
Khan was joined by countries such as Iran, Jordan, and Turkey in eventu-
ally forcing India to “withdraw” from the Rabat conference. While India
responded by recalling its ambassadors from Morocco and Jordan, the
Rabat fi asco soon snowballed into a major domestic crisis and provided
an opportunity for the opposition to challenge Mrs. Gandhi, who had just
split the Congress Party and marginalized the powerful Syndicate fac-
tion within the party. The opposition moved a censure motion over Rabat,
but the government managed to defeat it convincingly, by 306 to 140
votes.^54 The government relied on its secular spin and sought to convince
parliament and the nation that “in spite of its name, [the Rabat confer-
ence] was a po liti cal conference and it was in India’s interest to be repre-
sented in it.”^55 Writing to a member of parliament, the prime minister
observed that although it “formally styled itself as Islamic, its contents
w e r e i n t e n s e l y p o l i t i c a l. ”^56 However, when the watchful opposition de-
manded the government to table the “invitation,” Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi was unable to produce it.^57
Certain broader issues emerge from the examination of the protracted
and often acrimonious debates in both houses of parliament.
- Despite India’s peculiar interpretation, Rabat was an Islamic gath-
ering in name, content, composition, and future course of action. If the
conference was not religious but po liti cal, as claimed by India’s govern-
ment, Noorani’s pointed challenge during the controversy becomes rel-
evant: “why were such powerful supporters of the Arab cause as Rus sia
and China not invited to the First Islamic Summit Conference?”^58
the years of hardened hostility, 1964–1984 213