Desai apparently suggested ways of settling the Arab- Israeli problem and
“shared his ideas and the Israeli reaction with Egyptian Vice President
[Hosni] Mubarak and the Syrian President [Hafi z al] Assad, when they
visited Delhi.”^94 There were other high- level contacts between the two
countries during the Janata period, including a reported meeting be-
tween Desai and Defense Minister Ezer Weizman.^95 New Delhi also re-
laxed passport regulations, and Israel was dropped from the list of coun-
tries where Indian passports were declared “not valid.”^96
The Desai government’s favorable disposition toward Israel, especially
over the Camp David accords, did not go down well with a large segment
of the po liti cal circles. During the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections,
Jagjivan Ram, a se nior cabinet colleague of Desai and now the leader of
the Janata Party in parliament, met Arab ambassadors in New Delhi and
assured them of the continued support of the party.^97 During the election
campaign, various parties vied with one another to express and exhibit
their pro- Palestinian credentials.^98 For its part, the Congress Party and
its leadership used Dayan’s visit to depict the Janata Party as an anti-
Muslim force during the state elections in the early 1980s. There were
disagreements even within the Janata ranks. Secretary General of the
Party Madhu Limaye publicly declared that India “has no reason to
extend a welcome to the Camp David accord.”^99 Another se nior leader,
Jagjivan Ram, a former defense minister, took exception and claimed
that the cabinet “generally was not informed about the visit.”^100
The policy of the Janata government toward Israel was one of “conti-
nuity and change”: continuity in the sense that it was unable to normalize
relations and change because it was prepared to explore new avenues.
Even while adhering to India’s support for the Palestinians, it was not
averse to establishing formal and informal contacts with Israel. Consid-
ering the internal diff erences within the ruling co ali tion and its short
tenure, it is futile to speculate how India’s policy toward Israel would
have evolved had Desai’s government continued in power for a full fi ve-
year term.
Indira Gandhi, 1980– 1984
Internal squabbles and disagreements among the co ali tion part-
ners led to the premature demise of the Janata experiment. Capitalizing
on the lack of governance, Indira Gandhi won the January 1980 Lok
the years of hardened hostility, 1964–1984 221