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effect were signed by India’s ambassador in Lebanon S. K. Singh on 10
January 1975 (Asian Recorder 1975 ). This paved the way for the PLO
opening an office in New Delhi, which was more substantial in diplomatic
terms than the information offices that the organization had set up in some
Western capitals at that time. Weeks after returning to power in January
1980, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi upgraded the Palestinian mission and
bestowed all diplomatic privileges commensurate to the UN missions in the
country. In the wake of the Algiers Declaration of November 1988, India
was among the first countries to recognize the State of Palestine and has
been hosting Arafat and later his successor Abbas as the head of state.
Meanwhile, in June 1982, amidst the Lebanon War, India expelled the
Israeli Consul in Mumbai over his impertinent media remarks about New
Delhi competing with Islamabad in seeking favours from the Arab world
(Ward 1992 , 119). Later on, in November that year when India hosted
the Ninth Asian Games in Delhi, a new sports body for the continent—
Olympic Council of Asia—was formed from which Israel was formally
excluded. This ensured that Israel could not participate in all the subse-
quent Asian Games (Kumaraswamy 2002 ).
In short, since the closing stages of the Second World War, the
Palestinian issue has been a foreign and domestic agenda of Saudi Arabia
and took a more concrete role in the wake of the oil crisis and emerging
Saudi influence within and beyond this region. Thus, the converging
Indo-Saudi position vis-à-vis the Palestinian cause has been a positive ele-
ment in the otherwise dialogue of the deaf and figured prominently in all
the major political engagements between the two.
In his address during the banquet in honour of visiting Saudi Foreign
Minister Saud al-Faisal in April 1981, Foreign Minister P. V. Narasimha
Rao reminded that India’s “support for the Arab cause, emanating from
the principles and values so dear to us, has been firm and consistent”
(India, Foreign Affairs Record 1981 , 124). Criticizing “Israel’s expan-
sionism,” he conveyed India’s support for the Palestinians “to regain
their inalienable rights including the right to a nation-state” (India,
Foreign Affairs Record 1981 , 125). In appreciation of this stand, Rao felt
that the Arabs have a “perceptible understanding of India’s policies and
requirements.”
The Palestinian issue figured in the joint communiqué issued during
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s visit the following year. Both sides
“expressed their deep concern over situation arising from the aggressive
acts by Israel and its repeated violations of the resolutions of the UN and
P. R. KUMARASWAMY AND MD. M. QUAMAR