NEW DELHI: With India abstaining from voting on a United Nations resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict, opposition parties on Saturday asserted that the move goes against everything the country has stood for, even as the BJP stressed that India will never be on the side of terrorism.
Leaders of parties like the Congress, CPI, CPI(M), BSP and AIMIM said they were “shocked” and “ashamed” over India’s stand on the Jordan-drafted resolution that called for an immediate humanitarian truce in the Israel-Hamas conflict and unhindered humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar claimed there was “total confusion” in the approach of the Narendra Modi government to the Palestine issue. However, explaining New Delhi’s decision, sources said India is concerned over the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza but at the same time strongly considers that there can be no equivocation on terror, noting the resolution did not include any explicit condemnation of the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas.
India abstained in the vote in the absence of all elements of its approach not being covered in the final text of the resolution, they said.
In a post on X, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra quoted Mahatma Gandhi’s “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” to criticise the government’s stand.
“I am shocked and ashamed that our country has abstained from voting for a ceasefire in Gaza,” she said.
“Our country was founded on the principles of non-violence and truth, principles for which our freedom fighters laid down their lives, these principles form the basis of the constitution that defines our nationhood,” she said.
They represent the moral courage of India that guided its actions as a member of the international community, she added.
“To refuse to take a stand and watch in silence as every law of humanity is pulverized, food, water, medical supplies, communication and power is cut off to millions of people and thousands of men, women and children in Palestine are being annihilated goes against everything our country has stood for throughout its life as a nation,” Priyanka Gandhi said.
Reacting to Priyanka Gandhi’s remarks, senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said those who are ashamed and shocked must realise that India will never be on the side of terrorism.