In the spring of 1978, as Israeli armoured vehicles rolled into Southern Lebanon to eject militants from the Palestine Liberation Organization, Rikhi Jaipal, the Indian delegate at the United Nations Security Council found himself in a curious position.
With the Council debating a draft resolution to call on Israel to withdraw, and establish what would become the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, Jaipal sparred with the Israeli delegate (Chaim Herzog) on India’s criticism of Israel’s comments at the UN defending its actions in Lebanon. “By what right does he lecture us? By right of the fact that in 1975 his government’s forces chose to cross the border of the Kingdom of Sikkim…and annex – no more and no less that kingdom…?” Herzog asked.
India’s response was firm – that Sikkim became an integral part of India through self-determination and Indian forces were present due to long-existing treaty arrangements; “It was because Sikkim was our protectorate that Indian defence forces entered Sikkim in 1948, and not, as Ambassador Herzog said, in 1975. He is only 27 years out of date in this regard,” Jaipal added.
Sikkim became an integral part of India through self-determination.
While this was a time sensitive exchange triggered by Israel’s actions in Lebanon, it contained the leitmotif of India’s larger approach to the Middle East.
The Palestinian question was still potent in the Arab world, with memories of the 1973 OPEC crisis still fresh. Less than a year after Jaipal’s confrontation with Herzog, the Iranian Shia revolution upturned the Middle Eastern chess board, giving the Sunni Arab states a non-Israel threat to worry about and allowing them to hand the fight for Palestine over to Palestinians.
