Former Congress President Sonia Gandhi has strongly criticized the central government’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict. She stated that India should take a more vocal position on the Palestinian issue. The Congress leader alleged that the government’s ‘deep silence’ on this matter is an abandonment of both humanity and morality.
In an article in an English newspaper, Sonia Gandhi, the head of the Congress Parliamentary Party, wrote that the decisions taken by the central government are not based on India’s constitutional values or its interests, but are made on the basis of friendship. She said that the central government’s silence on the Palestine issue is due to the friendship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sonia Gandhi also targeted the friendship between Modi and Trump in the article. She wrote that this style of personal diplomacy by the central government is not right and cannot be a guide for India’s foreign policy. She said that the central government has recently seen its result, when America badly failed its attempt at friendship.
Sonia Gandhi wrote that now France has also recognized the Palestinian state like Britain, Canada, Portugal and Australia. She said that more than 150 countries out of the 193 member countries of the United Nations have recognized Palestine.
The Congress leader emphasized that India had supported the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for many years, after which India formally recognized the Palestinian state on November 8, 1988. She cited examples of how India had raised the issue of apartheid in South Africa even before independence and had also supported Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62). Not only this, India had intervened in the 1971 war between Bangladesh and Pakistan and gave full support to Bangladesh and played an important role in making it a separate country.
Sonia Gandhi said that India needs to show leadership on the issue of Palestine, which is now a struggle for justice, identity, respect and human rights. She said that India has long maintained a principled and balanced stand on important and sensitive issues like Israel and Palestine.
It should be noted that Sonia Gandhi has written articles on the Israel-Palestine conflict for the third time in the last few months, in which she has strongly criticized the Modi government’s stand on this issue every time.