नवीनतम
Modi’s Knesset address diminished India’s moral standing: Congress
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: The Indian National Congress on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his address to the Israeli Parliament, describing it as an “unabashed defence” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that, it said, had “diminished India’s moral standing”.
Targeting Modi, the opposition party recalled India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and cited his July 1947 reply to a letter written by Albert Einstein on the subject of the creation of Israel.
Addressing the Knesset on Wednesday, Modi described the Gaza Peace Initiative as a pathway to a “just and durable peace” and conveyed solidarity with Israel, asserting that “terrorism anywhere threatens peace everywhere”.
“I also carry with me the deepest condolences of the people of India for every life lost and for every family whose world was shattered in the barbaric terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7 (2023)... India stands with Israel, firmly, with full conviction, in this moment, and beyond. No cause can justify the murder of civilians. Nothing can justify terrorism,” Modi said in his address.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh denounced the speech and referred extensively to Nehru’s views on the Palestine question.
“In his address to the Knesset yesterday, which was an unabashed defence of his host, Prime Minister Modi drew attention to the fact that India recognised the new state of Israel on the day he was born,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
Ramesh then referred to Einstein’s letter to Nehru dated June 13, 1947, and Nehru’s reply a month later. He also recalled that Nehru and Einstein met at the physicist’s home in Princeton on November 5, 1949, and that Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952, which he declined.
Quoting from Nehru’s July 11, 1947 reply, Ramesh said India’s first prime minister had expressed sympathy for both Jews and Arabs, noting that the issue had become one of “high emotion and deep passion” on both sides. Nehru had cautioned that forcing solutions against the will of the parties concerned would only prolong conflict, and acknowledged that fault lay with all sides involved.
In another post, Ramesh also cited criticism of Modi’s address by Israeli lawyer and human rights activist Eitay Mack, saying his remarks exposed what the Congress leader described as the “sham” of the Prime Minister’s much-publicised speech.
Ramesh shared an article quoting Mack, which was critical of Modi’s address to the Israeli Parliament, reiterating the Congress’s claim that the speech had weakened India’s long-held moral and diplomatic positioning on the issue.
