In response to a query on the efforts the federal government was making for his or her launch, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar advised Parliament that their imprisonment was a “sensitive matter”. He mentioned “their interests are foremost in our minds. Ambassadors and senior officials are in constant touch with the Qatar government. We assure, they are our priority”.

More than a month has handed since that assertion on December 8. Earlier this month, a court docket in Doha extended their confinement by one other month, because it has executed firstly of each month since their arrest on August 30.

The lengthy custody of the veterans for causes not but within the public area is a check for Indian diplomacy, its engagement with the Indian diaspora, and contemplating that these males have been within the Navy, the foundations of the sport for the re-employment of defence providers personnel in different nations — a query that’s sure to recur when the Agniveers take up careers exterior the armed forces after their four-year contracts.

The eight males, and what they did in Qatar

The eight veterans — Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Purenendu Tiwari, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal and Sailor Ragesh — have been working at Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a defence providers supplier firm owned by an Omani nationwide, a retired squadron chief of the Royal Omani Air Force. He too was arrested together with the eight Indians, however was launched in November.

The web site of the corporate, which now not exists — it was eliminated after the primary media report of the arrests appeared on this newspaper on October 28 — mentioned it supplied coaching, logistics and upkeep providers to Qatari Emiri Naval Force (QENF). On its new web site, the corporate known as Dahra Global and there’s no point out of the connection to the QENF, nor of the seven officers who had management roles within the firm.

Managing Director Commander Purnendu Tiwari (retd) obtained the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award in 2019 for his providers in furthering the bilateral relationship between India and Qatar. He is the one particular person from the armed forces to have obtained the award. He was feted in Doha by then Indian Ambassador P Kumaran, and a former head of the Qatar defence forces’ International Military Cooperation. The operate was held on the Indian Cultural Centre. Captain Kapil Kaushik, of the Indian Navy, who was the defence attache at Embassy of India on the time, was additionally current at this occasion.

The Dahra web site additionally carried certificates from Kumaran, and his successor on the Indian Embassy in Doha, present Ambassador Deepak Mittal, praising the corporate’s work as furthering the reason for good relations between the 2 nations. Most of the arrested males had been working at Dahra for 4 to 6 years on the time of their arrests.

The arrests of the boys in September 2022

The males have been picked up by the State Security Bureau, the Qatari intelligence company. The Indian Embassy first learnt concerning the arrests in mid-September. On September 30, the boys have been allowed “brief telephonic contact” with relations. The first consular entry — a go to by an official of the Indian embassy — was granted on October 3, greater than a month after they have been taken into custody. Since then, they’ve been allowed weekly cellphone calls to relations.

A second consular entry was granted on the finish of December.

The fees towards the boys haven’t been made public, however their solitary confinement has led to hypothesis that they’ve been detained in reference to a security-related offence.

Asked about what they’ve been accused of, MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi mentioned at his weekly briefing that “this question should be directed to the Qatari authorities”.

The relations say they haven’t been knowledgeable concerning the fees by Qatari authorities. MEA officers have conveyed to them that they too haven’t been knowledgeable by Qatar.

India and Qatar: a historical past of pleasant ties

That the Indian authorities was neither knowledgeable of the arrests, nor, because the MEA has mentioned, knowledgeable of what the allegations towards them are, appears to point that New Delhi has not but been capable of entry the appropriate ranges within the Qatari management for a frank dialog about this case.

This could be comprehensible within the case of a hostile nation, however as one official noticed, “Qatar is not Pakistan”.

The two sides have had pleasant relations for many years. Since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s go to in November 2008, the primary by an Indian Prime Minister, the connection has burgeoned. The Qatari Emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, visited in 2015, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Qatar in 2016. Jaishankar has visited a minimum of thrice. Before that, Sushma Swaraj was the primary Indian international minister to go there in 2018.

In 2021, India was among the many high 4 export locations for Qatar, and can also be among the many high three sources of Qatar’s imports. The bilateral commerce is valued at $15 billion, which is usually LNG and LPG exports from Qatar value over $13 billion.

Defence co-operation has been formally described as a “pillar” of Indian-Qatar ties.The India-Qatar Defence Cooperation Agreement, signed throughout Prime Minister Singh’s November 2008 go to, prolonged for an extra 5 years in 2018, was a major turning level. An IDSA paper on the time quoted stories of Indian officers describing the settlement as “just short of stationing troops”. The pact included coaching of the QENF by India, in addition to mutual visits.

Indian Naval and Coast Guard ships repeatedly go to Qatar. QENF delegations participated in two maritime workouts in India final yr. Two editions of a joint naval train referred to as Zair Al Bahr have been held.

Last yr, the 2 sides agreed to rejoice the fiftieth anniversary of the institution of diplomatic relations in 2023.

Recent challenges within the relationship

The first huge problem to the connection got here final June over BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s derogatory references to the Prophet on a TV present. Qatar was the primary nation to object and demand a “public apology” from India quickly because the controversy erupted. The Indian Ambassador was summoned for a dressing down. The go to by then Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on the time was shadowed by the controversy. A lunch that was to be hosted by the Emir was cancelled, with the Qatari facet citing medical causes for the cancellation.

India’s harm management by getting the BJP to sack Sharma inside minutes as outrage unfold throughout the Islamic world, contained the fallout.

The jailing of the eight ex-Navy personnel is the second huge problem. It blindsided New Delhi in a rustic the place 800,000 Indians dwell and work. Indians are the biggest expatriate group in Qatar. Its 210-strong delegation on the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas occasion in Indore final week was the second greatest, subsequent solely to the Mauritius delegation. To them, New Delhi’s incapability to resolve the difficulty rapidly has despatched out the sign that every one is just not properly with the connection. It has additionally raised the query if this problem, or the problem in resolving it, is a fallout of the blasphemy row.

At the top of October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the Emir, accepting his Diwali greetings, and conveying India’s good needs for a profitable FIFA World Cup match.

In November, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s go to for the FIFA inaugural had created the expectation that he would elevate the difficulty of the jailed males. But that didn’t occur.

Meanwhile, New Delhi remains to be awaiting a response to its invitation final yr to the Emir to go to India, in keeping with a supply. And as of now, there isn’t a phrase about when the boys could be launched. There is an settlement between India and Qatar on the switch of convicted prisoners to India, to serve their sentence in a spot the place their households can go to them, however the males are nonetheless within the pre-trial stage of their incarceration, as no fees have been framed towards them but.

The softly-softly method through which the federal government has approached this case can also be a shift from the time when the late Sushma Swaraj made the welfare of Indians overseas her precedence throughout her stint as External Affairs Minister, reaching out personally to these in bother or their households, together with sending an air ambulance for a well being emergency. That degree of engagement raised expectations, some would say unreasonably so, that New Delhi would someway discover a approach out for each Indian in bother overseas. Even Swaraj needed to settle for defeat when it was lastly established that 39 Indian staff kidnapped by ISIS have been lengthy lifeless, at the same time as she stored holding the fingers of the households and assuring them that efforts have been being made for his or her launch.

In November 2019, then Southern Navy Command chief Rear Admiral R J Nadkarni advised a gathering of an ex-sailors’ discussion board in Kochi that the Navy had taken measures to supply placement alternatives for retired personnel to supply them with a “second innings with friendly nations”. He knowledgeable the assembly that an MoU had been signed with the Qatar Navy on this regard. There can be extra such agreements with different pleasant nations, he mentioned, assuring that the Navy would stand by its motto that it cares for its veterans. The present deadlock over the arrests in Doha presents a major problem.