New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his government’s response to the ongoing Gaza crisis, calling it a “shameful silence” and an “abduction of humanity.”
Writing in an article published in The Hindu, Gandhi stressed that India must show leadership on the Palestine issue, which she described as a battle for justice, identity, dignity, and human rights. She argued that New Delhi’s muted stance reflects not India’s constitutional values or strategic interests, but a friendship-driven diplomacy between Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This style of personalised diplomacy is never tenable and cannot guide India’s foreign policy,” Gandhi said, adding that similar approaches in other parts of the world, particularly the United States, had backfired.
This is the third article Gandhi has written in recent months on the Israel-Palestine conflict, consistently criticising the Modi government’s position. She reminded that India was once a strong voice for oppressed nations—raising its voice against apartheid South Africa, supporting Algeria’s independence, and intervening in 1971 to prevent genocide in East Pakistan, paving the way for Bangladesh.
On Palestine, Gandhi underlined India’s long history of support, noting that it recognised Palestinian statehood on November 18, 1988, after years of backing the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). She contrasted this legacy with the government’s silence since the October 2023 conflict began.
“The brutal Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, were followed by an Israeli response that has been nothing less than genocidal. Over 55,000 Palestinians, including 17,000 children, have been killed, while Gaza’s schools, hospitals, agriculture, and industries lie destroyed,” she wrote.
According to Gandhi, Gazans are now living in a famine-like situation due to Israeli restrictions on aid, with civilians even being shot while trying to collect food. She said the world’s slow response had indirectly legitimised Israeli actions, though recent moves by France, the UK, Canada, Portugal, and Australia to recognise Palestine offered hope.
“This is a historic moment, a reminder that silence is not neutrality but complicity,” Gandhi said, stressing that India’s voice—once loud in the cause of freedom and human dignity—has grown “conspicuously muted.”
She also criticised India for recently signing an investment agreement with Israel and hosting its far-right finance minister, who is widely condemned for inciting violence against Palestinians. Gandhi argued that the Palestinian struggle mirrors India’s own colonial past and urged New Delhi to act with historical empathy and moral courage.
“We owe Palestine not just empathy but principled action,” she concluded.
