Dialogue and diplomacy are the only way out of the Middle East crisis, and the government is closely monitoring developments in the region that is home to millions of Indians, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said in Parliament today.

The ‘Miya-Muslims – a derogatory reference to Muslims seen as crossing over illegally from Bangladesh – have long been at the centre of political debates in the state.

For India, the Gulf is not a theatre. It is an artery. When an artery is under stress, what matters in the end is not the rhetoric of the response, but the steadiness of the hand.