NEW DELHI – Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi-led government, asserting that its “mute spectator” stance on Israel’s military campaign in Gaza constitutes a “cowardly betrayal of our constitutional values.” In a strongly worded article published in the Hindi daily ‘Dainik Jagran,’ titled ‘Gaza sankat par mookdarshak Modi sarkaar’ (Modi government a mute spectator to Gaza crisis), Gandhi condemned Prime Minister Modi’s “shameful silence,” calling it “deeply disappointing” and the “height of moral cowardice.”
Gandhi urged Prime Minister Modi to speak out “clearly, boldly, and forthrightly” to uphold the legacy that India has long represented on the global stage. While unequivocally condemning Hamas’s “barbaric attacks” on innocent Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, and their continued holding of Israeli hostages, Gandhi argued that the Israeli government’s subsequent response and reprisals against the civilian population of Gaza have been “not only egregious but downright criminal.”
“As members of the international community—and more so as human beings – it is our responsibility to acknowledge that the Israeli government’s response and reprisals against the civilian population of Gaza have not only been egregious, but downright criminal,” she asserted in her article.
Highlighting the devastating human cost, Gandhi pointed out that over the past nearly two years, more than 55,000 Palestinian civilians, including an alarming 17,000 children, have been killed. She detailed how “most residential buildings in Gaza have been razed to the ground through relentless aerial bombardment, including hospitals,” leading to a complete shattering of the social fabric.
The former Congress chief accused the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of “weaponizing humanitarian aid” through a military blockade that has “deliberately and cruelly block[ed] the supply of medicines, food and fuel to the population.” She branded this “strategy of forced starvation” as “undoubtedly a crime against humanity” and cited horrifying reports of armed IDF soldiers “ruthlessly fir[ing] on hundreds of civilians who were trying to gather food for their families.” She noted that even the United Nations and the IDF itself have acknowledged these incidents.
“According to almost all objective assessments by experts on Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Gaza, it is a campaign that amounts to genocide and aims to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip of Palestinians,” Gandhi declared, drawing a poignant parallel to the “Naqba tragedy of 1948,” when Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes. She further claimed that these atrocities serve “nefarious objectives,” including a “colonial mindset” and the “selfish interests of a few ‘greedy’ real estate tycoons.”
Gandhi lamented the apparent failure of the international system, citing how “UN General Assembly resolutions demanding an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire in Gaza have been completely ignored.” She also pointed to the UN Security Council’s failure to impose sanctions on the Israeli government and Israel’s complete disregard for the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) order from January 26, 2024, which directed Israel to prevent acts of genocide and provide essential services and humanitarian aid. She attributed Israel’s actions, in part, to “direct and indirect support from the US,” which she said “encouraged these actions, but also made them possible.”
Opining that the responsibility to protect the interests of the people of Gaza now rests with individual countries given the “virtually defunct” international laws and institutions, Gandhi commended South Africa and Brazil for their courageous step in taking Israel to the ICJ. She also praised France’s decision to recognize the Palestinian state and highlighted sanctions imposed by Britain and Canada on Israeli leaders advocating aggression. Even within Israel, she noted, “voices of protest are growing,” with a former prime minister acknowledging “the reality of Israeli war crimes in Gaza.”
“Amidst this humanitarian crisis and the rising global consciousness around it, it is a national shame that India has remained a mute spectator to this affront to humanity,” Gandhi asserted. She invoked India’s historical role as a “symbol of global justice,” a nation that “inspired global movements against colonialism” and “led the international struggle against apartheid South Africa.”
Gandhi concluded by stating that “India’s abdication of its values is a blot on our national conscience, a disregard for our historical contributions, and also a cowardly betrayal of our constitutional values.” She underscored that the Directive Principles of State Policy mandate the government to promote international peace, maintain just relations, foster respect for international law, and encourage dispute settlement. Therefore, she argued, Israel’s “blatant disregard for basic concepts of international law, human rights and justice” coupled with the current government’s “moral cowardice” amounts to a “dereliction of our duties to our constitutional values.”
Reaffirming India’s consistent support for a ‘two-state solution’ and a just peace, Gandhi recalled that under Indira Gandhi’s leadership in 1974, India became the first non-Arab country to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and in 1988, among the first to officially recognize the State of Palestine.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shameful silence in the face of Israel’s relentless and devastating assault on the people of Gaza is deeply disappointing. It is the height of moral cowardice. The time has come for him to speak out clearly, boldly and forthrightly on behalf of the legacy that India has long represented,” she reiterated, concluding with a call for India to provide leadership, as “The Global South is once again looking to India for leadership on an issue that today shakes the collective conscience of all humanity.”
Sonia Gandhi Blasts Modi Government’s “Shameful Silence” On Gaza, Calls Israeli Actions “Genocide”
