New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday sharply criticised the Modi government’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, alleging that India’s foreign policy has been shaped more by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal friendship with Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu than by India’s constitutional values or strategic interests.
In an article titled “India’s muted voice, its detachment with Palestine” published in The Hindu, Gandhi accused the government of “profound silence” and “an abdication of both humanity and morality” on the issue.
“This style of personalised diplomacy is never tenable and cannot be the guiding compass of India’s foreign policy,” she wrote, adding that attempts to project foreign policy through individual glory have “come undone in the most painful and humiliating ways” in recent months.
Gandhi noted that over 150 UN member states have now recognised Palestinian statehood, with France joining the UK, Canada, Portugal and Australia in doing so. India, she reminded, was among the earliest countries to recognise Palestine on November 18, 1988, and had historically been a strong voice for anti-colonial struggles from apartheid South Africa to the Algerian independence movement.
“India’s voice, once so unwavering in the cause of freedom and human dignity, has remained conspicuously muted,” Gandhi said, urging the government to reclaim its leadership role.
She condemned the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, describing Israel’s military response since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, as “nothing less than genocidal.” Gandhi claimed more than 55,000 Palestinians including 17,000 children have been killed, with Gaza’s infrastructure, agriculture and industry devastated, and civilians facing famine-like conditions.
Calling the recent recognition of Palestine by several nations “a historical moment,” she said silence in the face of injustice amounts to complicity.
Gandhi also criticised New Delhi for recently signing a bilateral investment treaty with Israel and hosting its far-right finance minister, who has drawn global condemnation for inflammatory remarks about Palestinians.
“India must not see Palestine merely as a foreign policy question but as a test of our ethical and civilisational heritage,” she asserted. “We owe Palestine not just empathy but the courage to translate that empathy into principled action.”
