How focus on ‘Indians abroad’ has become as a major factor in India’s foreign policy success – Firstpost
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kuwait on 21-22 December 2024, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Kuwait after a gap of 43 years. The visit was long overdue and even Modi acknowledged it when he said that although it takes only four hours by air travel to reach Kuwait from India, but it took four decades for an Indian Prime Minister to reach Kuwait. True to the format of his visits abroad, an event with the Indian diaspora called ‘Hala Modi’ was a major attraction of the visit and drew huge crowds. A visit to a Labour Camp in Kuwait where hundreds of blue collar workers from India stay, was another effort towards connecting deeply and personally with Indians abroad.
Modi has often called Indians working and settled abroad as India’s ambassadors and has used this connect with millions of Indians abroad as an effective foreign policy tool, which has yielded rich dividends. Was this, however, always a regular part of India’s foreign policy outreach in the past? The answer is definitely, ‘No’. Prime Ministers visiting abroad earlier did interact with a select Indian diaspora, but none has used this as effectively as the Modi government in the past 11 years.
How Did ‘Indians Abroad’ Policy Evolve?
The credit for focusing on Indians abroad as an effective foreign policy instrument has to go the first team in Modi government and specifically to Sushma Swaraj, who was the External Affairs Minister in Modi’s first term and who used her powerful and compassionate public communication skills to not only interact seamlessly with Indians abroad but also was hugely instrumental in transforming the mindsets within the ministry and break the glass ceiling where the foreign ministry and foreign affairs were considered the domain of ‘elite and exclusive’.
One of the first things that she did was to ensure responsiveness and connectivity on social media by the Ministry and the Indian embassies abroad, especially through Twitter (Now ‘X’). She issued instructions to all Indian embassies that their official twitter accounts should always remain active and responsive to any cry for help. In her own witty style, she once said at a press conference once “I do not sleep. I do not let Indian envoys sleep.”
The aggressive and innovative use of Twitter often helped find a missing person abroad, get a duplicate passport made for someone who lost it while travelling, rescuing women victims of abuse abroad, reuniting families, etc. Any request for help, whether small or big, would get her attention and be instantly resolved. An example of it was her tweet in January 2015 which was in response to a YouTube video of distressed Indians in Iraq. It read, “I am happy all 168 Indians rescued. 141 came on 19th — remaining coming today”, and immediately endeared her to millions of Indians abroad. Another famous and witty quote was soon to follow when she tweeted on 08 June 2017, “Even if you are stuck on the Mars, Indian Embassy there will help you.”
In fact, in 2016, the Washington Post declared her Supermom of State in an article while Foreign Policy included her in their list of Global Thinkers 2016. She was also a part of Financial Times listing of Women of the year.
Some more innovative solutions to reach out, were to follow soon. On 25 December 2016, the ministry launched ‘Twitter Seva’, an umbrella service, for all ministry-related platforms, to help people in need and distress. And, on 8 January 2017, Sushma Swaraj communicated that any Indians abroad facing problems can tweet to the respective embassy and tag her in the tweet, adding that she will personally monitor the missions’ responses. This helped immensely in building confidence among Indians abroad, not to mention the embassies that were constantly on their toes to respond and resolve any issues quickly.
Another important initiative which brought greater focus on Indians travelling abroad was the proliferation of Passport Seva Kendras (Passport Service Centres) in Tier 2 and 3 cities. No longer were Indians required to travel to metros or capitals like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, etc, for getting passports. Replying to a question during the Question Hour in December 2022, the Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs, V Muraleedharan, stated that “Passport services have improved very much in the last eight years, I would say 500 per cent. The number of offices which process passport applications was 110 before 2014 and the number now stands at above 550”, confirming the trend and focus of the government.
However, what has perhaps made the maximum impact on Indians abroad is the assurance of their safety. As a result, whenever there has been a conflict in any part of the world and Indians need to be evacuated, the Indian government is always the first. Who can forget ‘Operation Raahat’ conducted in Yemen in March 2015 when war broke out between Saudi Arabia led coalition fighting Houthis in Yemen. India responded immediately to distress calls and evacuated almost 6,700 people through air and sea which included 4,741 Indians and 1,947 foreign nationals from 48 countries. Why foreigners? Because India was the only country trusted and permitted by the warring parties to evacuate people!
In 2020, when Covid-19 pandemic broke out, once again India was among the frontrunners to get its citizens back through sea corridors created across the globe as a part of ‘Operation Samudra Setu’, launched in May 2020, bringing back almost 4,000 Indian citizens.
When the Russia Ukraine war broke out in February 2022, India made its first priority to get its people out. ‘Operation Ganga’ launched and evacuated almost 20,000 Indians, mostly students, in an operation of mammoth proportions moving Indians by road to different border points and then getting them back home from Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova. And, when the Gaza war broke out in October 2023, India immediately launched ‘Operation Ajay’ to get back Indian citizens including students and tourists trapped in the war zone
Even when Kabul fell to the Taliban when the US led alliance abandoned Afghanistan suddenly leading to total anarchy and conflict, India managed to evacuate 669 people from Afghanistan, including 448 Indians and 206 Afghans.
Rescue of individual Indians abroad too has emerged as a big policy point. As a result, Father Tom Uzhunnalil, a priest from Kerala who was kidnapped in Yemen by ISIS in March 2016 in the port city of Aden, was rescued through close coordination with Oman and brought back safely. Similarly, eight Indian ex-Navy personnel, who were on a death sentence in Qatar, were granted pardon and returned home safely in February 2024, due to deft diplomacy by India. Many more cases could be added to the list like Geeta, the deaf and mute girl, who was rescued from Pakistan in 2015 and was reunited with her family in Maharashtra or the fight for Kulbhushan Jadhav who was facing death sentence in Pakistan.
Diaspora events are another important connect and have become signature events during PM Modi’s visits. Huge crowds of Indians fill the event venues to capacity, leaving the host leaders often in awe and disbelief. Whether it was at the Madison Square Garden in New York in September 2014 or at the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston in September 2019 where President Trump also accompanied Modi, the packed crowds left Americans awestruck. In Sydney, during a similar event in May 2023, the Australian Prime Minister Albanese watched in disbelief as the huge crowds filled in to watch and hear Modi, prompting him to say, “The last time I saw someone on the stage here was Bruce Springsteen, and he didn’t get the welcome that Prime Minister Modi has got. Prime Minister Modi is the boss!”
Similar reactions have been witnessed all over the world whenever Modi has interacted with the Indian diaspora whether it was the ‘Ahlan Modi’ event in Abu Dhabi in February 2024 or ‘Hala Modi’ event in Kuwait recently.
Another contribution of Indians abroad is the remittances that they send to their families in India. With $125 billion, India was top recipient of remittances in 2023 which is likely to touch $130 billion in 2024. It is a factor in ensuring economic stability of families at home in India while also contributing to India’s GDP growth. The influence of Indians abroad is seen at play at many more junctures and it is no coincidence that the UAE gifted land for construction of a magnificent Hindu Temple in Abu Dhabi, inaugurated by PM Modi in February 2024, which he called it as a ‘symbol of communal harmony and global unity for the whole world’.
Conclusion
The Modi government, very early in its first term, recognised the potential of Indians abroad in not only getting business and money to India but also their influence and power to sometimes nudge host governments to tilt decisions in India’s direction. ‘Indians Abroad First’ policy has added not only to the outreach of India in the world but has helped build a ‘greater India’ across the globe.
With almost 9 million Indians living and working in the Persian Gulf region, which is called India’s extended neighbourhood, the impact of this policy has been felt the most in the region. Not surprisingly, Modi, while addressing Indian diaspora in the UAE in 2018, called the region as “Home away from Home”, owing to the large diaspora and its valuable contributions to the host country, the UAE. Similarly, Sushma Swaraj, while addressing inaugural session of the First India-League of Arab States Media Symposium in August 2014, said that while India is their ‘janmabhoomi’ (birth place), the Gulf region is their ‘karmabhoomi’ (work place), adding that the millions of Indians abroad play the role of a powerful bridge-builder and economic connector.
As India grows in its stature as a global leader, there is no doubt that apart from its economic rise and geopolitical weight, it is also the peoples’ power that has contributed a lot in shaping narratives and perceptions. Within it ‘Indians Abroad’, too has significantly contributed to the growth story and foreign policy success.
Col Rajeev Agarwal is a military veteran and West Asia expert. During his service, he has been Director in Military Intelligence as well as Director in the Ministry of External Affairs. His X handle is @rajeev1421. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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