By Siraj Mirza
In 1948 Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru called a conference of Asian countries in which 15 Asian countries participated. The conference emphasized the value of unity and friendship between Asian countries, opposition to war, colonialism and world peace. In this conference Maulana Azad openly favoured helping Palestinian cause and opposed friendship of India with Israel as well as advocated establishment of friendly relations with other countries.
Pandit Nehru realized that Maulana Azad echoed the feelings of Indian Muslims; therefore his government opposed Israel for a long period till 1964 and immensely benefited Congress by using Indian Muslims as its vote bank.
Pandit Nehru famous for his dual policy, maintained internal relations with Israel using Krishna Menon for this purpose, and official recognized Israel by opening an Israel consulate in Mumbai. The history of friendship with Israel goes back beyond 1964. In 1954 Bandung Conference this romance between India and Israel started where important Afro-Asian leaders were present including Pandit Nehru, Zhou Enlai (Chou En-lai) of China and Sukarno of Indonesia India, Burma and Colombo (Sri Lanka) initiated that Israel should be permitted to take part in the conference. India put forward this agreement that Israel was an Asian country and a member of UNO; therefore, Israel should be allowed to join the conference. This was opposed by Pakistan, Indonesia and China.
Pakistan propagated in Arab Countries that India is against Arabs and favors Israel but Jamal Nassir of Egypt countered this propaganda. Still Israel could not get entry in the conference. China accused Israel to be the agent of capitalist countries who wanted back-door entry in the conference. Muhammad Ali Bogra, Prime Minister of Pakistan claimed that China is friend of Pakistan and Palestine and its sympathy towards us is disliked by India.
Chou Enlai and Muhammad Ali Bogra of Pakistan started their friendship in this conference. Krishna Memon wrote in his book, ‘India and World politics’ that Pakistan was a member of SEATO and CENTO at that time which was led by America. Still Chinese premier sympathized with Pakistan due to the pressure of Chinese Muslims and kept quit on the problem of Kashmir to show its sympathy with Kashmiri Muslims.
It is to be noted here that during their visits to India in 1953 and 1964 Khrushchev and Bulganin made a tour of Kashmir while India was resounding with the slogan of ‘Hindi- Chini Bhai Bhai’. But Chou Enlai did not visit Kashmir; which proves its strong friendship with Pakistan. During the war of 1965 China supported Pakistan which strengthened its friendship with Pakistan while Bandung Conference started friendship between India and Israel. BJP and UPA governments are responsible in strengthening relations with Israel. L.K. Advani played a vital role in trade, culture and military agreement with Israel and Pranab Mukherjee is also very keen to have a military agreement with Israel.