India in the Libyan Conundrum

Abstract

Libya after 42 years of Gaddafi’s autocratic and “Green Book” driven rule was hankering for some kind of liberation and the youth wanted to freely fly . Hence when the so called ‘Arab Spring” happened in 2010 Libyans were willing to see a better change and create a “New Libya” of their dreams . Gaddafi was unpopular with the Arab and western leaders because of his independent occasional waywardness in the international discourse which was not palatable to the global and regional powers that were calling the shots in the UN and outside. Hence an engineered revolution supported by external military intervention aimed at removal of Gaddafi ensued but without any plan for the future because of which the seeds of current disastrous developments were implanted. All this became known in a few years thereafter and Libyan’s continued instability follows on. As for India which had good relations with Libya all through did not support the military intervention at the UNSC hence it was on the wrong side of the manufactured history and revolution and paid the price as popular dissatisfaction with India’s approach became visible in day to day discourse especially at the popular level. To correct the skewed perception was the immediate task of the new Ambassador and to secure India’s commercial interests the next despite the fluid security situation. Unfortunately the “New Libya” dream of common Libyans shattered in no time.