The Israeli and Iranian diplomatic missions in India have intensified information warfare operations in recent weeks, in an apparent effort to influence Indian public opinion on the Middle-East.
On part of Israel, the ongoing effort to lobby Indian public support to the side of Tel Aviv as it takes on Hamas is being led by Naor Gilon, the Ambassador to New Delhi.
Gilon has not only been making India actively aware about the "victims of Hamas" through his media appearances and social media posts, but has also been calling out mainstream media for giving space to Hamas.
This week, Gilon posted an open letter to the editor-in-chief of The Hindu Group, one of India’s biggest and oldest news publications, for featuring an interview with Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas leader who heads the organization’s international relations office in Doha.
Gilon described the coverage of Marzouk as a “shameless attempt” on part of the Indian publication. He further accused the Indian media outlet of tacitly endorsing terrorism.
In a bid to influence Indian public opinion amid growing international outcry over the increasing civilian casualties in Gaza as a result of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) operations, Gilon has been taking part in half-marathons and “unity runs” and meeting up Bollywood personalities, including actress Kangana Ranaut.
On Wednesday, the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi put up pictures of victims killed in the surprise Hamas' attack on 7 October.
At the same time, Gilon has been urging the Indian government to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Gilon this week also criticized a pro-Hamas rally organized by an Islamic group Solidarity Youth Movement in the southern state of Kerala.
The Israeli Ambassador, much like his government, has urged Indians to be careful of death toll figures released by Gaza Health Ministry. He also asked Indians to be wary of "Iranian information sources."
The Hamas’ attack has been condemned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has expressed solidarity with Tel Aviv during a telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 10 October.
Many of Modi’s supporters have backed Israel in the ongoing war.
Subsequently, Modi also spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, expressing New Delhi’s conventional support for a two-state solution and concerns over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Last week, New Delhi abstained from a UN General Assembly vote on a Jordan sponsored resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. In its explanation, the Indian deputy Ambassador to UN, Yojana Patel, reasoned that the “world should not buy into any justification of terror acts.”
Strong India-Israel Ties Under Modi
The solidarity towards Israel by the Indian political leadership is in line with significant upswing in bilateral relations since Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014.
According to Swedish think tank Stocklolm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), over 42 percent of Israel’s defense exports, including high-end surveillance equipment, drones and Barak missiles, are exported to India.
Explaining India’s stance, foreign minister S Jaishankar said that New Delhi took a "strong position on terrorism."
“We will have no credibility if we say that when terrorism impacts us, it's very serious; when it happens to somebody else, it's not serious. We need to have a consistent position," Jaishankar stated at a town hall in Bhopal this week.
Iran’s Influence Operations in India
While the Palestinian Embassy in India has hardly been a match for the Israeli information operations in India, the Iranian missions in the country have been seen as vocal proponents of the Palestinian cause.
The Iranian Embassy and the consulates, through their official handles, have been highlighted the growing civilian casualties in Gaza caused by IDF.
This week, the Iranian Consulate in Hyderabad posted a video of a pro-Palestine protest that took place in the city.
Like Israel, Iran is a strategically critical partner nation for India. However, its importance to New Delhi has arguable gone down in recent years in the wake of Washinton withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and slapping unilateral sanctions on Tehran.
While Iran once ranked as India’s biggest supplier of crude, India now imports no energy from Iran at all due to fear of violating the US sanctions.
However, India still views Iran as a major connectivity partner, having invested nearly $500 million in the strategically-located port of Chabahar. Civilizational and historic linkages between the two countries still run strong, as underscored by the leaderships of the two nations.
This year, Iran joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the virtual summit under Indian presidency in July. Tehran was also invited to join the BRICS grouping at the Johannesburg summit in August.
Lobbying by Iran, Israel Shows India’s Growing Stature, Expert Says
Binay Kumar Singh, a senior research fellow of strategic studies at New Delhi-based think tank Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, told Sputnik India that the efforts by the foreign governments to garner Indian public support showed the “growing importance of India on the global stage”.
“India doesn’t have any role as such to play in the current crisis in the Middle-East. But its opinion on major global issues matters to other governments,” Singh remarked.
The expert said that Prime Minister Modi’s statement describing the Hamas attack on 7 October as terrorism should leave no doubt how New Delhi views the organization.
“There is a technical glitch as far as the official designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization in the UAPA is concerned. But, that’s because Hamas isn’t involved in terrorist activities in India,” Singh explained.