Congress slams Modi’s silence on Gaza ‘genocide’

The Congress on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his endorsement of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan, accusing him of betraying India’s long-standing moral position on Palestine by maintaining “complete silence” on what it called “horrific atrocities” and “genocide” in the region.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, in a post on X, said the Prime Minister’s silence in the face of the mass killing of civilians in Gaza amounts to “extreme moral cowardice” and a “total betrayal” of India’s historic stand in support of Palestinian statehood.

He charged Modi with siding with his “good friends” Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while ignoring fundamental questions about the proposed plan.

“Where are the people of Gaza themselves in the system of governance proposed? Where is the roadmap for a full-fledged Palestinian state? How much longer will the US and Israel continue to ignore Palestinian statehood -- which 157 UN member-states have already recognised, with India leading the way in November 1988? Where is the accountability for the genocide carried out in Gaza over the past 20 months?” Ramesh asked.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said: “Any plan that undermines the agency of the long-oppressed Palestinian people and fails to ensure accountability for the genocide they have endured since 2023 is deserving of contempt and condemnation. True justice can be restored only through the establishment of the Palestinian state. Everything else is a mere smokescreen to perpetuate the occupation.”

The party reminded that last week its working committee had passed a resolution expressing “profound distress” over the continuing civilian deaths in Gaza, declaring that “India has always been a beacon of moral conscience and the champion of the post-colonial world, it has now shamefully been reduced to a silent spectator. Our foreign policy has now acquired a moral taint.”

On Tuesday, Modi welcomed Trump’s proposal, calling it “a viable path to long-term peace, security and development for the Palestinian and Israeli people, as well as the larger West Asian region”. In a post on X, he had expressed hope that “all concerned will come together behind President Trump’s initiative and support this effort to end conflict and secure peace”.