Can't be explained morally: Sonia Gandhi shreds Modi govt for 'silence' on Gaza

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the Modi government over its response to the war in Gaza, saying its "stony silence" and "inaction" on what she called Israel's "Gaza genocide" were "not just morally reprehensible but also inexplicable from a national interest perspective".

In an article for The Indian Express, the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson said India had failed to respond even as global opinion had turned against Israel's actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Gandhi also argued that India's foreign policy had suffered because of this approach. She said India had alienated itself from "our historical allies in Palestine, Iran, and the larger Middle East", distanced itself from global public opinion, and allowed Pakistan "to claim the space of a mediator". She also described Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel, days before the US-Israel joint attack on Iran, as a "bewildering strategic decision".

In her article, Gandhi said, "The Modi government's continued silence simply cannot be explained rationally or morally." She said "the spirit of Indian nationhood" demanded that India speak up for Palestinians, especially children, while "the calculus of national interest" required India to respond to growing global opinion against what she described as the Israeli regime's "genocidal actions" in Gaza and its "brutal displacement and dispossession of lakhs of Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank".

Referring to international findings, Gandhi said the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory had concluded in September 2025 that Israeli authorities were committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. She said that in June 2026, the same commission, now headed by retired Justice S Muralidhar, had reiterated that Israeli actions were intended to destroy the very existence of Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children.

Calling the 94-page report "a harrowing read", she wrote, "At least 20,000 children have been killed, and another 44,000 have been wounded, many for life." She added, "The targeting of children is not incidental, but a deliberate strategy," and said 27 per cent of those killed or wounded had been children, while 97 per cent of Gaza's schools had been destroyed. She also said healthcare infrastructure, including paediatric hospitals, had been destroyed, leading to a 300 per cent increase in miscarriage and childbirth complications.

Gandhi said that in the two-and-a-half years since the "dastardly, horrific, and absolutely unacceptable attack" by Hamas on Israel, the retaliation by the Israeli armed forces and political leadership had been marked by "wanton cruelty and barbarity".

She said, "Senior Israeli leaders, down from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his senior cabinet colleagues themselves, have called for the 'complete siege' and 'total annihilation' of Gaza, denounced the Palestinians as 'animals' who have 'no right to exist', and defined success for Israel as 'hundreds of thousands fleeing Gaza'." Despite what she called clear "genocidal intent", Gandhi said, support from US President Donald Trump's government had enabled Israel to continue its "brutal campaign".

She said the UN had been unable to act decisively because of American obstruction, though its agencies had played a major role in documenting alleged Israeli war crimes. Gandhi also pointed to what she said was a wider global response, noting that France, the UK, Canada and Australia had recognised Palestinian statehood, South Africa had moved the International Court of Justice against Israel under the Genocide Convention of 1948, several European countries had restricted arms sales to Israel, and several Latin American nations had downgraded or severed ties.

She added that the International Criminal Court had issued arrest warrants for the Israeli political leadership and said many countries close to India had recognised Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide. "Amidst the growing public backlash against Israel and the international community's cognisance of the unjustifiable brutality unleashed on Gaza, India remains a lone voice of silence," she wrote.

Gandhi said Justice Muralidhar's report had sparked renewed discussion and activism against the "Gaza genocide" but had been met with "stony silence" from the Narendra Modi government. She added that this was "hardly surprising" and recalled that Justice Muralidhar had been transferred from the Delhi High Court after he called out the Delhi Police's inaction on BJP leaders' inflammatory statements before the 2020 Delhi riots.

She said India had once stood out for its commitment to postcolonial solidarity, national sovereignty and international peace, but added, "Today we are exceptional in our continued indifference to the flagrant violation of the global rules-based order, to the suffering of our fellow peoples in the Global South, and to the abasement of human dignity that is on open display in Gaza and the West Bank."

Recalling the story of Hind Rajab, Gandhi said the five-year-old had become emblematic of the cruelty in Gaza. She wrote that the child was fleeing Gaza City with her family when Israeli forces fired 335 rounds at their car, killing six family members and leaving her trapped with their bodies while paramedics tried to rescue her. "She was eventually killed, along with two paramedics," Gandhi wrote.

On India's strategic position, Gandhi said the country was slipping further into Israel's orbit at a time when much of the world was moving away from it. She said Modi's visit to Israel "amidst these circumstances, and only days before Israel's war on Iran and the assassination of its top political leadership, will go down in history as a 'bewildering strategic decision'".

She wrote, "We have alienated ourselves from our historical allies in Palestine, Iran, and the larger Middle East. We have distanced ourselves from global public opinion. And we have let Pakistan, of all countries, itself a state that has and continues to harbour dreaded terrorists, swoop in to claim the space of a mediator - a role to which we would have a natural claim given our historically friendly ties with all players." Gandhi added that India's sacrifice of "its strategic interest and morality" had yielded "nothing but the friendship between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Netanyahu".

Sharing the article on X, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Gandhi's piece calling out the "Modi Government's silence" and inaction on Palestinian people was a "stark reminder" of how foreign policy had alienated India's historical allies in Palestine, Iran and the larger Middle East.

Rahul Gandhi also shared the article on X and said, "Through her editorial, Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi ji calls on India to reclaim its independent foreign policy, uphold humanitarian values, and speak up with moral clarity on Gaza." Overall, Gandhi's article combined a moral attack on the government's silence with a political argument that India's strategic interests had also been weakened by its stance on Gaza, Palestine, Iran and the wider region.

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