Modi govt’s stance on Palestine marked by silence, moral failure: Sonia Gandhi

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday, 25 September, criticised the Narendra Modi government’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, accusing it of “profound silence” and abandoning both humanity and morality.

Writing in The Hindu, she argued that India’s position appeared shaped more by Prime Minister Modi’s personal ties with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu than by constitutional values or strategic interests.

“This style of personalised diplomacy is untenable and cannot guide India’s foreign policy,” Sonia Gandhi said, warning that similar approaches elsewhere, including in the US, had ended in “humiliating ways”.

Recalling India’s history of supporting liberation struggles in South Africa, Algeria, and Bangladesh, Sonia Gandhi said New Delhi had once led on the Palestinian issue, formally recognising its statehood in 1988. But since the October 2023 outbreak of hostilities, she said, India had “all but relinquished” its role.

She condemned Hamas’s 7 October 2023, attacks on Israel but said the Israeli response was “nothing less than genocidal,” citing over 55,000 Palestinian deaths, including 17,000 children. Gaza’s schools, hospitals, farms, and industries had been destroyed, she said, with civilians forced into famine and even shot while seeking food.

While more than 150 UN member states have now recognised Palestine — including France, the UK, Canada, Portugal, and Australia — Sonia Gandhi noted India instead signed a bilateral investment deal with Israel and hosted its far-right finance minister, accused of inciting violence against Palestinians.

Calling this a “historical moment”, she said silence was not neutrality but complicity. “India must not see Palestine as just foreign policy. It is a test of our ethical and civilisational heritage. We owe Palestine empathy, and the courage to turn empathy into action,” she asserted.

With PTI inputs