“We left Pakistan…”: Sonia denounces Modi government’s “stony silence” on Gaza “genocide”

Sonia Gandhi criticized Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Israel, calling it a “disconcerting strategic decision” amid regional conflict.

IMAGE: Palestinians walk past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the war, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, June 12, 2026. Photograph: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

In a scathing attack on the Modi government, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said its “stony silence” and “inaction” over Israel’s “Gaza genocide” is not only morally wrong but also inexplicable from the point of view of national interest.

Gandhi, the president of the Congress parliamentary party, claimed that India had distanced itself from its historic allies in Palestine, Iran and the wider Middle East and distanced itself from global public opinion, while allowing Pakistan to step in to claim the space of a mediator.

Sonia calls PM Modi’s visit to Israel ‘confusing’

In an article for The Indian ExpressGandhi also called Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel on the eve of the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran a “disconcerting strategic decision”.

The Congress leader said the spirit of the Indian nation demands that it should speak out on behalf of the Palestinians whose children have been so brutally targeted and the calculus of national interest demands that India respond to global public opinion against the “genocidal actions” of the Israeli regime in Gaza and its “brutal displacement and dispossession of thousands of Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank”.

“The Modi government’s continued silence simply cannot be explained rationally or morally,” she said.

In September 2025, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that Israeli authorities were committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, it said.

Sonia refers to the remark of the United Nations Commission

In June 2026, the same commission – now headed by Justice (retired) S Muralidhar, a prominent Indian jurist – poignantly reiterated that Israeli actions aim to destroy the very existence of Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children, Gandhi said.

“The 94-page report makes harrowing reading, with grim details of the extent of Israel’s devastation in Gaza and the genocidal intent behind its actions. At least 20,000 children were killed and another 44,000 injured, many for life,” she said.

The targeting of children is not accidental, but a deliberate strategy, Gandhi said.

“Twenty-seven percent of those killed or injured were children and many boys were found with bullets in their heads and necks. Ninety-seven percent of Gaza’s schools were destroyed,” she said.

Health infrastructure, including pediatric hospitals, was destroyed, leading to a 300 percent increase in miscarriages and childbirth complications, Gandhi said.

In the two and a half years since Hamas’s “vile, horrific and absolutely unacceptable attack” on Israel, it has become clear that the retaliation by Israel’s armed forces and political leaders has been characterized by “gratuitous cruelty and barbarity,” she said.

“Senior Israeli leaders, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top cabinet colleagues themselves, have called for the ‘complete siege’ and ‘total annihilation’ of Gaza, denounced Palestinians as ‘animals’ who have ‘no right to exist,’ and defined Israel’s success as ‘hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza,’” Gandhi said.

Despite this obvious “genocidal intent”, the support of President Donald Trump’s administration in Washington DC allowed the Israeli government to continue its “brutal campaign” against the Palestinians, she said, adding that the rest of the world felt a wake-up call.

The UN was unable to act decisively due to US obstruction, but through its agencies it played a leading role in documenting Israeli war crimes, she said.

International recognition of Palestine

The major powers historically associated with the Western bloc – including France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia – have recognized Palestinian statehood after decades of indifference to the Palestinian cause, she noted.

South Africa, a country with which India shares a long history of anti-colonial solidarity, took Israel to the International Court of Justice for its violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention, Gandhi noted.

She also pointed out that several European states have restricted their arms sales to Israel and that several Latin American countries have downgraded or severed their ties with this country.

The International Criminal Court has even issued arrest warrants for Israeli political leaders, she said.

A very large number of countries with which India has close relations have recognized Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, Gandhi said.

“Amidst the growing public backlash against Israel and the international community’s awakening to the unjustifiable brutality unleashed against Gaza, India remains the lone voice of silence,” she said.

Justice Muralidhar’s report, which sparked renewed conversation and activism against the Gaza genocide, was met with “stony silence” from the Narendra Modi government, the former Congress leader said.

This is hardly surprising: remember that Justice Muralidhar was transferred out of the Delhi High Court after he called out the inaction of the Delhi Police in the face of inflammatory statements by BJP leaders in the run-up to the 2020 Delhi riots, she pointed out.

India’s historical relations with Palestine

Gandhi said India was historically exceptional among the world’s nations for its commitment to postcolonial solidarity, national sovereignty and international peace.

“Today, we are exceptional in our continued indifference to the blatant violation of the rules-based global order, the suffering of our fellow citizens in the South, and the degradation of human dignity that is openly visible in Gaza and the West Bank,” she said in her article.

Gandhi also recalled the tragic story of Hind Rajab and said it was emblematic of the indescribable cruelty of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

“A girl, just five years old, fleeing Gaza City with her family when Israeli forces fired 335 bullets into their car, killing all six of her family members, leaving her trapped in a car with the bodies of her loved ones while paramedics tried to rescue her. She was eventually killed, along with two paramedics,” she said.

“The silence and inaction of the Modi government is not only morally wrong, but also inexplicable from the point of view of national interest,” she said.

India is slipping further and further into Israel’s strategic orbit, at a time when the world is moving further and further away from it, Gandhi said.

The prime minister’s visit to Israel under these circumstances, and just days before Israel’s war with Iran and the assassination of its top political leaders, will go down in history as a “baffling strategic decision”, Gandhi said.

“We have distanced ourselves from our historic allies in Palestine, Iran and across the Middle East. We have distanced ourselves from global public opinion. And we have let Pakistan, of all countries, itself a state that has harbored and continues to harbor fearsome terrorists, step in to claim mediator space – a role we would naturally claim given our historical friendly ties with all stakeholders,” she said.

India’s sacrifice of its strategic interests and morality has only brought us friendship between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Netanyahu, which is now under attack all over the world, including the United States, Gandhi said.

Kharge and Rahul support Sonia’s call for Gaza

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