The Congress party on Saturday strongly criticized the Modi government for abstaining from a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution was supported by 149 countries, while India was among just 19 that abstained.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said India now stands “virtually isolated” and questioned whether the government had abandoned the country’s historic stance against war, genocide, and in support of justice. He blamed what he called a “shambles” in foreign policy on repeated “blunders” by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, urging Prime Minister Modi to ensure accountability.
Kharge stressed that Congress had condemned both the October 8, 2023, Hamas attack on Israeli civilians and the subsequent mass bombings of Gaza, where more than 60,000 people have died in a worsening humanitarian crisis. He asked whether India had forsaken its tradition of non-alignment and moral diplomacy.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal also criticized the abstention, noting that India had always stood for peace and justice but now appeared alone in South Asia, BRICS, and the SCO in refusing to support the ceasefire call. He demanded to know what had changed in six months since India last supported a ceasefire in Gaza in December 2024.
Venugopal accused the BJP-led government of disregarding the legacies of both Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee when it came to supporting Palestine. He urged the Ministry of External Affairs to explain the shift in India’s position.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called India’s abstention a “tragic reversal” of its anti-colonial values. She said India not only stood silent as Israel attacked Gaza, but seemed to endorse the Netanyahu government’s military strikes on Iran and assassinations of its leaders—actions she described as violations of sovereignty and international law.
Vadra added that India must reclaim its voice for truth and non-violence and warned against abandoning the principles of the Constitution and the freedom struggle.
AICC media department head Pawan Khera called the abstention “an act of staggering moral cowardice,” and said India had once proudly stood with Palestine—recalling how it was the first non-Arab country to recognize the PLO in 1974, invited Yasser Arafat to the NAM summit in 1983, and recognized Palestinian statehood in 1988.
Khera accused the Modi government of taking a “craven U-turn” from its December 2024 vote supporting a Gaza ceasefire, arguing that the current stance betrayed India’s conscience for the sake of diplomacy based on “photo-ops” with blood-soaked hands.
The UNGA resolution, introduced by Spain, passed overwhelmingly with 149 votes in favour, 12 against, and 19 abstentions. India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Parvathaneni Harish, said the vote came amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
