Muslim Brotherhood seeks India help for polls in Egypt

NEW DELHI: The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's Islamic party, has approached India to help conduct elections in the country when they are ready to go to polls. India may be willing to consider the request, sources said, The request was made to the Indian envoy in Egypt in the past weeks.

The Brotherhood was banned in Egypt through the reign of deposed president Hosni Mubarak. Its Islamist history and its role in the creation of Islamist movements have raised fears that in the post-Mubarak power vacuum, the Brotherhood may seek to turn Egypt into an Islamic power. India, with huge credibility in conducting the world's largest elections fairly, looks upon this as a unique way of recasting its relations with Egypt, which were negligible in the Mubarak years.

India is also looking at requests like this as promoting brand India, but not piggybacking on any other power. The possibility of India helping out with Egypt elections was also raised by US secretray of state Hillary Clinton with foreign minister S M Krishna. To get a better view of the fast-changing political equations in the region, national security advisor Shivshankar Menon will travel to Tehran in early March. He will also take in some of the Arab states in the Gulf. India is mulling a high-level visit to Egypt as well, but there is no decision on that yet, said sources.

Menon's visit to Iran comes after a visit to India by Seyed Shamsuddin Hosseini, special envoy to the Iranian president. Iran has once again invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for Navroz celebrations. But it's unlikely the PM will attend, said sources. Iran fancies itself as a regional power, particularly after the Arab crisis put Sunni regimes in turmoil. Indian officials tracking developments in these regions said Iran believes it has history on its side. This is a cause of fear and loathing among the Arab world, sharpening Shia-Sunni divides. India has about 4 million people living and working in the Arab countries.