UAE-India ties are historical

For an Indian diplomat, the assignment as consul-general in Dubai is challenging and overwhelming. On arrival, I remember being told that the finest sound that an Indian consul-general hears is that of the jet engine taking off after completion of his tenure.

I have spent 44 wondrous months in this truly global city, Dubai. Time has moved like a speeding car on Shaikh Zayed Road. But when I look back at events, high-level visits, particular incidents or the breadth of the relationship that I have experienced then it does seem like three and a half years. How does one capture a diplomatic assignment with the backdrop of civilisational linkages in a brief article?

India is a fast developing civilisational state with 1.2 billion people and a continental diversity. UAE, on the other hand, is like a green field state where the visionary rulers have from scratch put up infrastructure and a man management model that has delivered extraordinary results and prosperity.

Our two countries have widely differing realities and challenges, yet there is a core philosophy common to the vision of the UAE rulers and that enshrined in the Indian Constitution. Both our countries have embraced pluralism to prove that diversities need not divide, but can co-exist and prosper together.

The India-UAE partnership is historical and legendary. But importantly, it is also a relationship which is dynamic with new contours and linkages. Not long ago, this was a relationship built largely on the strength of human resources from India.

Today, the India-UAE relationship sings different tunes and more than anything else, is defined by our economic and commercial linkages. We are each other’s biggest trade partners with annual trade exceeding $75 billion (Dh275.25 billion).

Last year, an estimated million Indians visited Dubai. Sum up the shopping done by Indian tourists here and you could easily add another $5 billion to our bilateral trade. We are also joined at the hip by about 700 weekly flights. Every 20 minutes, an aircraft takes off between India and the UAE.

UAE with about $8 billion worth of investments is amongst India’s top-10 investors. Indian investments in the UAE are beginning to tell a new story. Not long ago, an Indian entrepreneur here gradually accumulated capital and built a business. The new Indian entrepreneur brings in capital from back home or elsewhere.

A conservative assessment of the total investments by Indian companies here is about $80 billion. If you add the value of Indian investments in the property sector that number may touch $100 billion. We are also amongst the biggest consumers. The recent decision by the Government of India to put flat screen TVs under a new import tariff reportedly caused TV sales in Dubai to dip by a third.

The transactional aspect of this dynamic relationship is true for India’s ties with the region too. At $181 billion our trade with the GCC is the most with any other regional bloc. We are also amongst the biggest buyers of GCC’s oil. In fact, the payment for oil imports from the Gulf by India (at above $75 billion) is more than double the remittances Indian expatriates send home from the Gulf. The market is underwriting India’s links with the region.

I thought I knew India. But the assignment here was like a ‘Re-discover India programme’. No area in India, barring Mumbai, represents Indian diversity like the Indian community in Dubai. Where else would you find half a dozen Indian restaurants devoted to different style of coastal cooking? Your wildest Indian food fantasy can be ordered as a take away in Dubai! India has 640 administrative districts. You can bet there is at least one resident in Dubai from each of these districts.

The Indian community here is probably the most positive anywhere and is part of the nation building process of two states, India and the UAE. When you think of the Indian migrant here, you now need to think beyond the humble skilled or unskilled worker.

Please also consider the top Indian bankers, the CEOs, the CFOs, the doctors, the chartered accountants and the lawyers. Indians run world-class business models in retail trade, education and the health sector.

The Indian community is proudly cohesive and committed. It recreates our ethos here in many telling ways. The most serious efforts at promoting and celebrating the classical and folk dances outside Kerala happens here.

High quality theatre productions in regional languages like Gujarati, Marathi and Bengali outside India are staged here. The biggest kavi sammelans and mushairas (poetry recitation in public) outside the Hindi heartland are held here, attended by thousands till dawn the next day.

Apart from the stock challenges of meeting consular expectations of the community and promoting our commercial interests, the last three and a half years was punctuated by a number of high-profile cases, including the 17 Indians case in Sharjah, the fallout of the Anna Hazare protests in India, Somali piracy which cut personal and deep, the Air India Express tragedy in Mangalore and evacuation of Indians from Libya through Dubai amongst many others.

Offering relief from all this was the softer side of Dubai, the Bollywood capital of the Gulf. Meeting idols like Amitabh Bachchan, Gulzarsaab, Asha Bhonsle and Shabana Azmi or wearing the moderator’s hat at the Sharjah Book Fair and the Emirates Festival of Literature in Dubai to interview legends like Ruskin Bond and Arundhati Roy or chat up Shobha De, Anupam Kher, Prasoon Joshi and film director Sujoy Ghosh for a live audience were memorable and enjoyable experiences.

On the way, I also discovered some home truths about the Indian society in Dubai. For instance, you can never be late to an Indian party in Dubai. If you are invited for dinner, please have dinner at home before arriving because the table will be laid only post-midnight.

Dubai is also a place where I learnt that people actually take a vacation to recover from the hectic partying schedule. Dubai is also a place where some feel that if you get less than three invites on Diwali then you need to fire your image consultant. Was it a coincidence that Dubai also has the finest amateur belters of Bollywood songs? Strangely, the best of these singers, and they are really talented, are also huge business success stories. Provoking me to suggest, you have wasted your life making money; you should have made music.

When the Air India Dreamliner leaves Dubai with us on board, the noise of the jet engine will be drowned out by the friendship and support of our Emirati friends, the camaraderie of the diplomatic corps and love and affection of the Indian community. It was a privilege to represent India and the community in Dubai.

Sanjay Verma is the outgoing Indian consul-general for the northern emirates and ambassador designate to Addis Ababa.