Modi’s silence on Israel is ‘unconscionable’: Congress

The Congress on Monday launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited India among Israel's strongest supporters, accusing the government of abandoning India's moral and civilisational values through its silence on Israel's military actions in Gaza and the wider West Asia.

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said Netanyahu was mistaken in portraying India as standing firmly behind Israel, arguing that while the Modi government may support Tel Aviv, millions of Indians do not endorse its military campaign.

"Mr Netanyahu is wrong. Undoubtedly, Israel is embedded in the Modani empire and Mr Narendra Modi is blindly devoted to him. But crores of Indians condemn Israel's genocide in Gaza that has not spared even children, its forcible dispossession and displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, its heavy aerial bombardments of Iran that has included targeted assassinations, and its brutal military offensive in southern Lebanon. These are all assaults on humanity itself," Ramesh said.

In one of his strongest attacks on the Prime Minister, the Congress leader described Modi's silence on Israel's actions as a betrayal of India's values.

"The self-styled, award-hungry Vishwaguru's stony silence on Israel's actions is a betrayal of India's civilisational ethos and values. It is simply unconscionable," Ramesh said.

He also dismissed Netanyahu's praise of India, saying, "Getting a certificate from Netanyahu is no badge of honour," while adding that the Israeli leader himself was becoming increasingly isolated internationally, including among some of his closest allies.

The Congress statement came after Netanyahu, in an interview with Fox News' Sunday Briefing, pushed back against remarks by US vice-president J.D. Vance suggesting the United States remained Israel's only powerful ally.

"We have some other friends, like a small country called India... it has 1.4 billion people and, boy, do we have tremendous support there," Netanyahu said, adding that he received "overwhelming support" from India on Facebook.

Netanyahu's remarks were seen as a response to comments made by Vance last month, when the US vice-president said Israel should exercise restraint during US-Iran diplomatic efforts.

"If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world," Vance had said while responding to reports that Israeli leaders were unhappy with the US-Iran agreement and had criticised US President Donald Trump.

The Congress seized on Netanyahu's comments to renew its criticism of the Modi government's foreign policy, alleging that New Delhi's silence on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israeli military operations in the region has undermined India's longstanding commitment to justice, peace and support for the Palestinian cause.

With PTI inputs