Quiet diplomacy won the day

The release of the 8 ex-Navy personnel from prison in Qatar is welcome.

The release of the eight retired Navy personnel from prison in Qatar, where they had been convicted of espionage and sentenced to varying jail terms, is a happy development, with quiet diplomacy winning the day. Seven of the men returned home in the early hours of February 12. The situation of the eighth, who was the managing director of the company at which all of them held senior positions, is unclear. There can be no doubt that the release came after high-level intervention on both sides. PM Modi's meeting with the Qatari Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hammad Al Thani, in the UAE in December seems to have been the turning point. Weeks earlier, the government had declared itself “shocked” by the death sentence awarded to the eight men by the trial court. However, soon after the leaders met, the court hearing appeals by the convicted men commuted the capital punishment to varying prison terms. That was the first indication of a thaw in Qatar over this curious case. From their arrest in August 2022, the men each spent months in solitary confinement in the custody of an internal security agency, until their trial in March last year. Delhi seemed to adopt a ‘hands off’ stance in the initial weeks, which was puzzling since they were ex-servicemen and had been lauded for boosting bilateral ties with their work, which involved logistics, maintenance and training for the Qatari Navy. The managing director was the 2019 recipient of Pravasi Bharat Samman, the first ex-serviceman to be so honoured. But after questions in parliament, and polite reminders from families and ex-servicemen's associations, that the men had been languishing too long without charges, the government appeared to take more interest.

When the men were eventually put on trial, the government bore the legal costs, and also flew family members to Qatar to meet the jailed men. It may be only coincidental that only a week before their release, India, whose main import from Qatar is natural gas, signed a new 20-year agreement with Qatar for the import of LNG from 2028-2048. 

The secrecy around the charges observed by both the Qatari authorities and Delhi, and the tightly held verdict of the trial court -- the details are not in the public domain -- is unusual, and raises valid questions about who both sides are seeking to protect. Unlike Pakistan, where Kulbhushan Jadhav continues to languish, India has friendly ties with Qatar. So there was no reason for this to take the serious proportions it did, unless there was some substance to the charges. Qatar's 2.7 million population mostly comprises expatriates. Indians form the largest component of 800,000. The arrest and harsh sentencing of the men rattled the Indian diaspora in the entire Gulf region. Now that it has ended well, Delhi must ensure that such incidents do not recur.