Tarek A. Mishkhas is the Editor-in-Chief of Malayalam News , a daily newspaper based in Saudi Arabia that caters to the huge expat population of Keralites in the kingdom. He is also the top editor of Urdu News whose target readers are the Pakistani expats. A former diplomat and sports journalist, Mishkhas had earlier been the deputy editor of Arab News , the first English-language newspaper in Saudi Arabia, which is published by the Saudi Research and Publishing Company.

Mishkhas, an analyst of international interventions in West Asia, is also a keen observer of Indian affairs. In an interview with BusinessLine here recently, he shared his views on Narendra Modi, Kashmir, Indian workers in Saudi Arabia and how the US and Israel turned West Asia into an international battlefield of economic, political and religious interests.

How do the Arab street and the Arab intelligentsia view Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led government?

India has always been loved and revered by the Arab world and Indian affairs fascinated people in West Asia.

Following the Gujarat riots, Narendra Modi was widely disliked. However, after he became the Prime Minister, there’s has been a perceptible change in the Arab street’s attitude to him.

He is viewed as a changed man who is capable of taking bold steps.

However, the intelligentsia still has a wait-and-watch attitude.

Personally, I believe that Modi can bring peace to Kashmir. If he takes a bold decision on Kashmir peace, the BJP will fully support him.

There are several lakhs of Indians working in Saudi Arabia and the current Nitaqat (Saudization) programme caused concern that it will reduce Indians’ opportunities there. Your comments?

See, the Saudi labour market, dominated by several millions of expat workers, has been highly chaotic.

The government wanted to bring order to the scene. Visa violations were rampant; there were thousand of fake visa holders.

See, I am here in Kozhikode on a tourist visa, I cannot take up a job here. But, in Saudi Arabia there are lakhs of such illegal employees. Through the Nitaqat, the Government has been able to either send out or regularise the illegal expats. Secondly, the Government is now enforcing the norm that a certain proportion of the workforce of each enterprise should be the Saudi nationals.

Saudi Arabia is a fast developing country and we need a lot of expats to carry out the development activities.

So, in the near term, there is going to be demand for more workers, particularly in the skilled and specialised sectors. I am sure there will be more jobs for Indians. The Malayali population in my country is so large that our company decided to bring out a Malayalam newspaper for them two decades ago.

The media scene in West Asia seems to have changed a lot in the recent times…

Yes, the media in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have become more open and assertive now, but restrictions still remain. Also, people now realise that when it comes to the Arab world and Islam, the western media is highly biased. The anti-Islam bias of the American and western news agencies and TV channels are too obvious to the people now.

What has been the impact of Al Jazeera on the West Asian media scene?

Of course, the channel has brought a lot of changes. But, it criticises all countries and organisations in the region, except its home country Qatar’s policies.

Saudi Arabia has been an American ally for a long time. But, after King Abdulla took over, the relations have not been as strong as earlier. As a former diplomat how do you see this?

America is only interested in its economic and political advantages. It also wants to continue to be the most influential country in West Asia. Of course, American-Saudi relations are still strong. King Abdulla has a pan-Arabian outlook and he has asserted his country’s and the Arabs’ interests. For instance, when American President Obama, in the wake of the Ukranian crisis, wanted Saudi Arabia to jack up oil production so that global oil prices would fall and Russia would get hurt, the King said a firm no.

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