By Mursi Saad El-Din India may well be the only country to celebrate two national days. Independence Day commemorates the day -- 15 August, 1947 -- India shook off the British colonial yoke. Republic Day commemorates the day India chose its system of government, on the 26 January, 1950 when the rulers of India declared the country a secular democracy. The latter occasion, which the Indian Embassy celebrated last week, brought back memories of India, of both public events and private encounters. In the public context, relations between Prime Minister Nehru and President Nasser came to mind. I still remember the party the Indian Embassy gave on the beautiful lawn of the ambassador's residence on the occasion of Mr Nehru's visit to Egypt on 1 February, 1955. I had the pleasure, and indeed the honour, of shaking hands with the two great leaders on that occasion. But the first meeting between them had taken place in 1953, when Nehru stopped over in Cairo on his way back from a Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference in London. At the time, according to Najma Heptulla in her book Indo- West Asian Relations: The Nehru Era, a joint communiqué issued after Nehru's discussions with Nasser spoke of the consonance of their views on major international issues. Soon after, there were negotiations for a treaty of friendship between Egypt and India. After the 1952 Revolution, India was the first Asian country to extend diplomatic recognition to the new regime in 1953. But diplomatic relations had existed between the two countries before the revolution. Independent India's first ambassador Dr Sayed Hussein, died in 1949, and was given a state funeral in Cairo. He was followed by Shri A Fyzee. According to Heptulla, both had made a big contribution to improving India's relationship with Egypt. Nehru and Nasser were to meet again on 12 April, 1955, when Nasser arrived in New Delhi on his way to the Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung. The Bandung conference presented another opportunity for Nehru and Nasser to strengthen the Indo-Egyptian relations. The two leaders had developed a good rapport, and had met several times in the course of the previous months. In fact, whenever Nehru was on his way to Europe or the United States, he always stopped in Cairo, capitalising on this opportunity to have discussions with Nasser. As is well-known, following Egypt's nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company, Nehru tried to find a solution that might appeal to all parties concerned. During the Commonwealth Conference held in August 1956 in London, India urged the Western countries for a negotiated settlement, and its delegate submitted a six- point proposal to this effect. But it was all to no avail -- a few months later came the Tripartite Aggression by Israel, France and Britain against Egypt. In a letter to Dag Hammarskjold, secretary-general of the United Nations, in October 1956, Nehru stated that "It is clear and admitted that Israel has committed a large scale aggression against Egypt." Instead of trying to stop this aggression, the UK and France, he went on, are themselves assisting in the invasion of Egyptian territory. Not only was this an affront to the Security Council and a violation of the UN charter, but it was also likely, as Nehru pointed out, to have grave consequences all over the world. Heptulla sums up the situation thus: "clear and naked aggression" towards Egypt by Israel was a turning point in India's, and especially Nehru's, attitude towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. From the time of the Balfour Declaration until the start of the Suez War, India's attitude had been one of sympathy towards the Arabs. However, it was never hostile to Israel since its creation in 1948. The Israeli action in 1956 made Nehru reconsider his earlier policies, which resulted in a development of closer ties with Arab countries.
