May 4, 2004 ☼ Foreign Affairs

The Agonist quotes an Al Jazeera report that suggests that over 1500 Indian ex-servicemen were hired by private firms to serve as security guards in Iraq, in spite of a government ban on travel to Iraq. It is suspected that private companies skirted around the ban by falsely declaring Kuwait and Jordan as the destination.

Unlike what the Agonist is trying to imply, it does not appear that the ex-servicemen were there as part of India’s covert support to the United States led coalition. It seems like yet another case of ‘employment agents’ trying to make a quick buck in the Gulf.

More: Jivha thinks the Indian government is doing this to assuage Arab opinion. Perhaps, but it is more likely that Yashwant Sinha is doing what every minister does when confronted with an embarassing revelation by opposition parties: launch an enquiry.

---

If you would like to share or comment on this, please discuss it on my GitHub Previous
Whitefield: farmland, ashram, Intel microchip Next
Internal rifts widen in Pakistan

© Copyright 2003-2024. Nitin Pai. All Rights Reserved.