The fact of the matter is that India has, always, wanted to project itself as a country on the rise — as a country that pumps on diplomacy, favourable GDP growth and strategic cooperation. While once a facade, hard evidence points to India’s covert ambitions, most notably in the Middle East. The recently underlined arrest of Qatar’s Indian IT engineer, Amit Gupta, on charges of having stolen data and spying has brought this issue back into focus, making evident as to how intensive and far reaching are India’s secret operations in other countries. This arrest is not just another rendition that India has penned in one of its long fables of international espionage, it in fact bears an unfortunate pattern that shows how New Delhi is swiftly transforming into one of the most unreliable allies on the international scene.

There has been fertile ground in Qatar and across the Gulf for India to plant intelligence operations with a large Indian diaspora

Gupta’s is not an isolated incident. This is a much broader practice of the Indian intelligence agencies of deploying civilians, particularly IT professionals, as such workers or even expatriates in important places. There has been fertile ground in Qatar and across the Gulf for India to plant intelligence operations with a large Indian diaspora, using their workforce as a cover to collect sensitive data as well as provide access to local systems. The fact that India is employing these covert activities is a challenge to the foundational trust between nations and proves that the country is willing to count espionage over alliance and diplomacy.

This arrest comes shortly after eight Indian Navy officers were arrested in Qatar in 2022 on the charges of spying

This arrest comes shortly after eight Indian Navy officers were arrested in Qatar in 2022 on the charges of spying. If they are as the news media has been reporting, these back-to-back incidents have far reaching implications about the size and scope of India’s espionage network and what use it is put to in one of the most geopolitically charged regions of the world, the Middle East. This persistent espionage campaign serves to erode trust not just between India and Gulf nations, but chimes to define a troubled country already in a turbulent region.

By siding with Israel’s frequently unilateral and confrontational posture toward the region since early 2013, India has shifted toward a more interventionist and destabilizing foreign policy

Then there is India’s deepening alliance with Israel, a country with a well-known intelligence monopoly and military posture. With India and Israel becoming stronger partners in defence and cybersecurity, especially, the extent and complexity of India’s covert operations has expanded. While the two nations would claim that their military objectives are mutually beneficial, for regional powers, it is alarming that now they live in a world where the nations’ military intelligence is now streamlined from an Indo-Israeli axis. By siding with Israel’s frequently unilateral and confrontational posture towards the region since early 2013, India has shifted to pursue a more interventionist and destabilizing foreign policy.

The increasing military and economic engagements of New Delhi with the United States, sometimes jeopardising its ties with Moscow, is reflective of New Delhi’s preparedness to alter alliances based on ease more than loyalty

The Middle East is just one of India’s patterns of betrayal. It is still under pressure from Western influence, bilateral trust between the two nations has frayed, particularly regarding its long-standing defence relationship with Russia. The increasing military and economic engagements of New Delhi with the United States, sometimes jeopardising its ties with Moscow, is reflective of New Delhi’s preparedness to alter the alliances based on ease more than loyalty. One such instance where India has sacrificed existing strategic partnerships for wider geopolitical interests is of the cancellation or delay of Russian arms contracts, despite existing agreements. This means that India’s alliances are transactable, and its trust is fungible.

This behaviour of India is precisely why it will be an untrustworthy partner in any geopolitical arrangement. This all contravenes with India’s national security needs and regional cohesion. Ultimately, the insidiousness of it is keeping civilians like IT professionals and military veterans as espionage agents ‘hiding out’ as labour force workers. Thus it becomes a participation between the host country and a migrant as an instrument of the statecraft.

As a result of this, covert agendas have started to follow India’s increasing presence in the Middle East. The dual-use of its presence, where workers double as informants or agents, poses a profound risk to regional stability. They not only violate the sovereignty of the nation but also create an ambience of suspicion and hostility that in fact sets the diplomatic fallout and also sometimes leads to a regional conflict.

India’s becoming closer to intelligence powers like Israel, and thus it is evident that India is more interested in manipulation than in mutual growth

While all this strategic duplicity in Qatar and in India’s betrayal of Russia and India’s becoming closer to intelligence powers like Israel, and thus it is evident that India is more interested in manipulation than in mutual growth. Any alliance is based on trust, and India wastes it as quickly as it suits its larger interests. Gupta’s arrest is not just a legal matter but also a geopolitical warning. In a new world order where nations can no longer be taken at their word, India should be examined not so much for what it says it is but how it continues to act out.

At such a time as this, reliability is not a virtue, it’s a necessity. By that standard, India has never measured up to it. It is unreliable, and in fact an approaching danger of betrayal to the alliances it both seeks and promises to defend.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.