Total confusion in Govt’s approach to Palestine issue: Pawar

 

 

 

NATIONALIST Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday said there was “total confusion” in the approach of the Narendra Modi Government to the Palestine issue amid the Israel-Hamas war, his comment coming after India abstained in the United Nations General Assembly on a resolution calling for immediate humanitarian truce. Several thousand people have been killed in Gaza in a massive counter-offensive by Israel following deadly raids on October 7 by Hamas. Replying to a question in a news conference, Pawar said India never supported the way Gaza is being attacked, hospitals were being bombed, resulting in the death of thousands.

 

“Today, there is total confusion in the Indian Government’s policy. I have never seen such confusion from the Indian Government over the Palestine and Gaza issue. The first statement of the PM totally supported Israel. When there was a reaction from the outside world and (within) India, the foreign ministry took a different line and spoke in favour of Palestine,” Pawar, a former Defence Minister, claimed. India has abstained in the UN General Assembly on a resolution that called for an immediate humanitarian truce in the Israel-Hamas conflict leading to a cessation of hostilities. It also called for unhindered humanitarian access in the Gaza strip.

 

The 193 members of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), which met in a resumed 10th Emergency Special Session, voted on the draft resolution submitted by Jordan and co-sponsored by more than 40 nations, including Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia and South Africa. The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions. Earlier this month, after Hamas launched its incursions, PM Narendra Modi had expressed solidarity with Israel and condemned the “terrorist attacks”

 

 

INDIA’S abstaining from voting on a United Nations resolution calling for a truce in Gaza is “shocking” and shows that it is shaping its foreign policy as “a subordinate ally of US imperialism,” the CPI(M) and the CPI said in a joint statement on Saturday. The CPI(M) said it will hold a protest on Sunday at its AKG Bhawan office to express solidarity with Palestine. In the joint statement titled ‘Stop this Genocidal Aggression in Gaza,’ Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI General Secretary D Raja said India’s move negates its longstanding support to the Palestinian cause.

 

“It is shocking that India abstained on a Resolution overwhelmingly adopted by the UN General Assembly calling for a humanitarian truce titled ‘Protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations’ in the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza,” they said. “India’s abstention on a resolution that was overwhelmingly adopted shows the extent to which Indian foreign policy is being shaped by being a subordinate ally of US imperialism and the Modi government’s actions for consolidating the US-Israel-India nexus. This negates India’s longstanding support to the Palestinian cause,” they said.

CONGRESS leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday expressed “shock” over New Delhi abstaining on a United Nations resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict, saying that watching in silence thousands of men, women and children in Palestine being annihilated goes against everything India has stood for.

In a post on X, Priyanka Gandhi quoted Mahatma Gandhi’s “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” to drive home her point.