Litmus test for Indian diplomacy as Navy veterans on death row in Qatar

Subhasish Mitra (Wide Angle)

The death sentence given by Qatar to eight retired Indian naval personnel — seven officers and one sailor — on espionage charges is unprecedented in India’s diplomatic history.

 

The immediate fallout is that Indian diplomacy is facing a litmus test vis-a-vis the verdict of Qatar’s Court of First Instance that sentenced eight former Indian Navy officers to death. In the past, Indians have been given the death penalty and executed abroad, but these have been on charges of murder or narcotics.

 

The Ministry of External Affairs has expressed “concern” and said that it is “awaiting the detailed judgment”. At stake are the lives of eight Indian citizens. The charges against them have not been made public by the Qatari authorities. What is known is that the former navy officers were working in their private capacity with a now-defunct company, Dahara Global, to oversee the induction of small Italian stealth missiles.

 

Leaked reports suggest that the men have been accused of sharing secret information pertaining to the stealth submarine programme they worked on, with a third country, a charge their families have denied. They were arrested in August, last year, apparently on undeclared charges of espionage — the families of the arrested and embassy officials who had consular access to them were not informed of the charges.

 

The men have spent long spells in solitary confinement and went months without being able to contact their families, and how their trial has been conducted in Qatar can hardly be described as fair and transparent. Despite pleas from their families and Indian diplomats in Doha, Qatar has not explained why it has not divulged details of the case. Even the judgment has yet to be shared with New Delhi.

 

In December, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had told Parliament that the matter “is extremely sensitive”. His ministry has been equally careful in its choice of words after Thursday’s sentencing, while assuring the eight Indians that it will provide them consular and legal support.

 

It is true that Pakistan has convicted Indians on espionage and terrorism, including Kulbhushan Jadhav, a retired naval officer, who is currently under a death sentence. But there is a fundamental difference between an inimical country like Pakistan and Qatar with which India has multifaceted ties.

 

The Qatar case is poised to test India’s ties with the West Asian state. The government has pulled diplomatic levers at multiple levels to secure the release of Indian citizens. But its approach has also been informed by the imperative to respect the laws of a country where more than 8,00,000 Indians — the largest expatriate community in Qatar — live and work.

 

Successive Indian governments have tried to build friendly ties with the gas-rich nation. Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Qatar in 2008 was reciprocated by Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s visit to India in 2015. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Gulf state in 2016 and Doha has hosted EAM Jaishankar multiple times. These visits have laid the ground for a strong economic relationship.

 

Given the cordial ties between the two sides, New Delhi should leverage its close relations with Doha and negotiate immediate return of former Navy personnel sentenced to death even as mystery and uncertainty shrouds the case. The government must waste no time in charting the next steps to ensure the Indians are given the best possible support in an appeal.