cabinet minister, Murli Manohar Joshi. The Asian Age commented that Israel had signed lucrative agreements with the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force; Israel is upgrading India’s MIG-21 aircraft and the ageing Jaguars. It is modernising the electronic system of the Indian aircraft carrier INS Virat. Israel is upgrading the Indian Army’s 130mm artillery guns to 155mm. It has sold 40,000 rounds of 155mm shells to the Indian Army together with radar systems. Israel has been given the contract by the Indian Government for the fencing of sensitive areas in Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir, using electronic devices. Israel military experts in fencing gave a presentation on the fencing project inside the 15 Corps headquarters of the Indian Army in Srinagar recently. They surveyed the Line of Control (LoC) and photographed the Pakistan side also. An Israeli military cell is being set up in the 15 Corps headquarters in Srinagar for the fencing job. In 1993, when Israel’s Foreign Minister Shimon Perez visited India, he specially had a long meeting with L.K. Advani who was not a Minister at that time. Perez suggested that India should colonise Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir with Hindus and clip the Muslim majority ratio. Commenting on the respect and power Israel now commands in the Indian Government, the Asian Age of June 16 noted that the doors of the Indian Foreign Office have been thrown open to Israeli diplomats and military personnel who visit it regularly. The Asian Age wrote: “Delhi, which had tread delicately earlier for fear of offending the Arab nations who control a large percentage of the nation’s (i.e. India’s) oil supply, has shed all such reservations now to openly embrace and make common cause with Israel”.
It is now obvious that BJP-ruled India has made Israel its ally in its combat with the Muslim world, especially Pakistan, and in seeking global hegemony for its Hindutva doctrine. Three million Israeli Jews are now far more important to India’s Hindu rulers than 1.4 billion Muslims and 54 Muslim-majority states in the world. This is the signal stemming from Indian Home Minister Advani’s visit to the country he seems to adore-Israel.

(Mr. Qutubuddin Aziz is a former Pakistani diplomat and veteran journalist who writes on international affairs. He has just returned after a 7-week visit to the USA).