To try and spin Narendra Modi’s visit to Abu Dhabi’s #1 tourist attraction as some sort of conciliatory gesture to Muslims is just plain ridiculous.

Stop the presses.

Narendra Modi has visited a mosque in Abu Dhabi.

Ever since Narendra Modi famously declined to put on a Muslim skull cap at a sadbhavana fast in 2011, the media has been on overdrive scrutiny for the slightest hint of a gesture towards India’s largest minority from Narendra Modi.

That has led finally to headlines as ludicrous as this one from Reuters after Modi visited the Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

PM Modi visits UAE mosque in conciliatory gesture to Muslims.



Picking up on that refrain, Digvijaya Singh of the Congress says “I’m happy that a person who did not wish to wear a skull cap is visiting a mosque, it is a good sign.”

A good sign of what? Conciliation? Outreach? Tour planning?

Kadira Pethiyagoda, visiting fellow at the Asia-Middle East Relations Brookings Doha Center sees the mosque visit as “a clear signal that he wishes to bury his own communalist baggage and build on India’s pluralistic reputation and highlight Islam’s role in Indian history.”

Talk about overreading a tourist selfie moment. Ever heard of "when in Rome…"?

The Grand Mosque is the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates. Artisans and materials from around the world were used to build it. At 60,570 sq ft, it has the largest hand-woven carpet in the world so that thousands can pray simultaneously. In short, it is one of Abu Dhabi’s biggest tourist attractions. According to Tripadvisor, it ranks #1 among 145 suggested things to do in Abu Dhabi. Just because the Sheikh Zayed Mosque is Grand does not make his visiting it a grand gesture as well. But Zafar Sareshwala, the PM's confidant seems to suggest as much to The Hindu when he says "“The UAE visit, on the whole, will have a huge impact on Indian honour and Muslims, though the Prime Minister has visited several Central Asian countries and Bangladesh in the recent past. Indian Muslims do look to the Arab world as a leader in their religious affairs."

To try and spin Narendra Modi’s visit to Abu Dhabi’s #1 tourist attraction as some sort of conciliatory gesture to Muslims is just plain ridiculous. In fact, if he had skipped the mosque and gone to the Falcon Hospital that would have been far more comment-worthy.

Drawing a parallel with China’s famous terracotta warriors, Omar Abdullah rightly tweeted out “This Mosque is Abu Dhabi’s biggest tourist attraction, this is the PM’s ‘Terracotta Army’ moment, no more, no less.”

Modi’s visit to the ICAD City that houses thousands of workers should have been far more significant than selfies at the mosque. That is where India and the UAE really meet in ways that matter far more than a tourist stopover at the Grand Mosque. The UAE is a significant visit for Narendra Modi in ways that has nothing to do with that country’s religion. Modi is not there for pilgrimage, but for business. As the Prime Minister told an investor meeting at Masdar City there are 700 flights between India and UAE and a potential of $1 trillion investments in India by the UAE while India’s agricultural sector needs UAE expertise in cold storage and warehousing network.

Narendra Modi has gone to the UAE for all those reasons. To think that he would need to go all the way to Abu Dhabi to go to a mosque to send out a conciliatory signal to Muslims in India is absurd and insulting to India’s own rich Muslim heritage. There are plenty of ways for Modi to make that kind of gesture in India.

When it comes to gestures Modi has been clear about avoiding what he considers tokenism. At the time of that skullcap controversy Modi had dismissed it saying Mahatma Gandhi did not wear one either and a “kind of deformity had come in Indian politics where anything can be done for appeasement.” Of course, Mahatma Gandhi did not need to wear a skull cap because his actions spoke for themselves. In the end he paid with his life for his commitment to his ideals. Narendra Modi says his job is to respect all communities and at the same time accept his own values.



"I don’t bluff people by wearing a cap, or getting clicked. But I believe that if someone shows disrespect to another person then he should be given the strictest punishment."

That is fair enough. Modi’s actions as the prime minister respecting the values of all and the laws of the land without discrimination should send out a message that is much stronger than wearing a skullcap. His problem is he is too often found to be silent for too long when some hothead in his party says something offensive about another community. There’s no sign of that “strictest punishment” for the likes of a Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti or a Giriraj Singh. At most a tepid half apology is forthcoming. And that impression cannot be rectified by a skullcap selfie inside a mosque, even an impressively large one. Or Eid greetings via Twitter.

So let us not turn a photo-op inside a giant mosque in Abu Dhabi into some kind of selfie postcard to the Muslims back home “wary of his past and his Hindu nationalist party.” That would reek of as much tokenism as that skullcap he once turned away not to mention assume utter naivete on the part of India’s Muslims. Both Modi and India's Muslims deserve better than that.