Indians in Saudi Arabia need
justice
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al
Saud, who is also the Kingdom’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, had
visited India recently.
His visit is bound to give tremendous boost to the ties
between India and Saudi Arabia. There
already exists a “strategic partnership” between New Delhi and Riyadh, spanning diverse fields including energy
security, information technology and outer space. The best thing about his visit was that this time the focus was on military ties.
Riyadh’s long-standing ties with Islamabad should not affect India’s relation with
Saudi Arabia. India has no basis to
grudge Saudi Arabia’s “all weather” ties with Pakistan, so long as they do not
harm New Delhi’s core interests.
Although there is a crossfire between Saudi Arabia
and Iran,
on account of the situation in Syria,
India prefers to stay neutral in this matter since India benefits from all
these three countries.
There are millions of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia. There is a need for the Saudis to
provide safe working environment and
enforcing safe working practices for the thousands and thousands of Indian
technicians and skilled workers in the construction industry. After all, the
affluent lifestyles of the countries in the Arabian Peninsula, triggered by
their oil wealth, are simply not possible without the sweat and toil of workers
from the Indian subcontinents and Southeast Asia. The native populations of the
region do not have the temperament or the skills for the type of work done by
these skilled workers.
Saudis also need to be told to stop aiding and
abetting terror around the world, improve their human rights record, allow
other religions to be practised in Saudi, let Women have equal rights and to
have democracy there.
Only if Saudi Arabia agrees to consider very
seriously all the above mentioned issues which concern the Indians, there can
be scope for still further strengthening of ties between the two countries.
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