There is a misconception among Indians that Iran is a good friend of India. The reality is that Iran and India are not good friends and they have working relationship.
recently, Iran has criticized India on internal matters like CAA, Delhi riots, abrogation of article 370 from Jammu & Kashmir or the pretext that all these steps are anti-Muslims. This is a red line for India and Indian Govt. takes any criticism of Indian Kashmir policy and internal matters very seriously. On the other hand India has stopped buying oil from Iran in 2019 after American sanctions waiver ended. India has excellent relationship with US, Israel and Saudi Arabia (all adversaries of Iran).
I agree with Abhijeet Iyer Mitra when he says that India building infrastructure projects in Iran is a joke. Yes, its a joke because Iranian infrastructures, health systems, HDI, literacy rate are far better than that of India (mainly due to legacy of Shah regime). India building Chabahar port and railway line was nothing but a way to bring investments in Iran at time of sanctions. As typical Indian projects these projects have been delayed for various reasons (funding issue , slow planning, bureaucratic hurdles, American sanctions etc.). And meanwhile, due to various geo-political treasons India has gone closer to US and Iran has gone closer to China. China and Iran may sign 400 billion USD investment/loan agreements next year.
Chabahar port project was awarded to India when Iran was facing sanctions and Iran also offered very lucrative deals to India. But when Obama administration lifted those sanctions, Iran refused to honor its commitments because they had access to greater market. Then Trump administration again imposed the sanctions, Iran tried to persuade India but this time India sided with USA and stopped purchasing oil from Iran. Now China is pumping so much money its obvious that they will side with China. It is another fact that a large section of Iranian population is against such deal which may convert Iran a virtual satellite of China. There is a thumb rule that a commercial port should have an annual base of 30 to 40 billion economy in vicinity for it to succeed (and neither Gwadar nor Chabahar has such economic base). So, they may end up as another Hambantota port. India is still a part of Chabahar project where Indian total investment will be around 200 to400 million USD. We may see that Iran will find excuses to exclude India from Chabahar port project also by some or other way. Now they have just excluded Indian from Chabahar rail project (Chabahar port to Afghanistan border).
If India will have to chose between Israel/America and Iran then out of 100 times India will chose Israel/America. But this doesn't mean that India should not maintain working relationship with Iran. We must remember that last real people to people contact between India and Iran happened in 1739 when Nadir Shah looted more than 100 billion dollar (in today's money) worth of goods/jewel etc. from India. Modi Govt. should keep Indian national interest in mind when dealing with Iran not Shia vote bank in mind.
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