Sonia Gandhi hits out at Modi government’s ‘stone silence’ on Gaza ‘genocide’

In a scathing attack on the Modi government, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday (June 27, 2026) said its “stony silence” and “inaction” on Israel’s “genocide in Gaza” was not only morally reprehensible but also inexplicable in the national interest.

Mrs. Gandhi, president of the Congress Parliamentary Party, argued that India had alienated itself from its historic allies in Palestine, Iran and greater West Asia and distanced itself from global public opinion while allowing Pakistan to take the place of mediator.

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In an article for The Indian Express, Mrs Gandhi also said she called Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel ahead of the joint US-Israel strike on Iran a “confused strategic decision”.

The Congress leader said the spirit of Indian nationhood required him to speak for the Palestinians, whose children were so brutally targeted, and the calculus of national interest required India to respond to global public opinion against the Israeli regime’s “genocidal actions” in Gaza and its “brutal displacement and dispossession of thousands of Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank”.

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

In September 2025, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that Israeli authorities were committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, she said.

In June 2026, the same commission — now headed by Justice (retired) S. Muralidhar, an eminent Indian jurist — painfully reiterated that Israel’s actions are aimed at destroying the very existence of Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children, Ms. Gandhi said.

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

Targeting children is not accidental, but a deliberate strategy, Mrs. Gandhi argued.

“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 children’s hospitals, has been destroyed, resulting in a 300% increase in abortions and birth complications, Mrs Gandhi said.

In the two-and-a-half years since Hamas’ “vile, horrific and totally unacceptable attack” on Israel, the retaliation by Israel’s armed forces and political leadership has become characterized by “willful cruelty and barbarism,” she said.

“Senior Israeli leaders, starting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his senior cabinet colleagues, have called for the ‘total encirclement’ and ‘total destruction’ of Gaza, condemned the Palestinians as ‘animals’ who have ‘no right to exist’ and defined Israel’s success as ‘hundreds of thousands fleeing Gaza,'” he said.

Despite this clear “genocidal intent”, the support of President Donald Trump’s government in Washington DC has allowed the Israeli government to continue its “brutal campaign” against the Palestinians, she said, adding that the rest of the world felt a pang of conscience.

The UN has been unable to act decisively because of US obstruction, but has played a stellar role through its agencies in documenting Israel’s war crimes, she said.

Leading 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 stressed.

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

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

The International Criminal Court has even issued arrest warrants for Israeli political leadership, 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.

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

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

This is not surprising – recall that Justice Muralidhar was transferred from the Delhi High Court after he pointed out the inaction of the Delhi Police on inflammatory statements by BJP leaders in the run-up to the 2020 Delhi riots, she pointed out.

Mrs. Gandhi said that India is historically unique among the nations of the world for our commitment to post-colonial solidarity, national sovereignty and international peace.

“We are exceptional today in our continued indifference to the flagrant violation of the rules-based global order, to the suffering of our fellow citizens in the Global South, and to the disdain for human dignity on open display in Gaza and the West Bank,” she said in her article.

Mrs Gandhi also recalled the tragic story of Hind Rajab and said it was a symbol of the unspeakable cruelty of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

“Only a five-year-old girl fleeing Gaza City with her family when Israeli forces fired 335 rounds into their car, killing six of her family members and leaving her trapped in the car with the dead bodies of her relatives while rescuers tried to rescue her. She was eventually killed along with two medics,” she said.

“The silence and inaction of the Modi government is not only morally reprehensible but also inexplicable in terms of national interest,” she said.

India is slipping further into Israel’s strategic orbit at a time when the world is increasingly moving away from it, Mrs 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 leadership will go down in history as a “stunning strategic decision”, Mrs Gandhi said.

“We have alienated ourselves from our historic allies in Palestine, Iran and the wider Middle East. We have distanced ourselves from global public opinion. And we have left Pakistan, of all countries, alone as the state that has and continues to harbor feared terrorists, to claim the mediator’s space – a role to which we would naturally be entitled given our historically friendly ties with all the players.”

India’s sacrifice of its strategic interests and morals has brought us nothing but friendship between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Netanyahu, which is now under attack across the world, including the US, Mrs Gandhi said.

Sharing the article in a post on X, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said Sonia Gandhi’s suggestive piece calling out the Modi government’s “silence” and inaction for the Palestinian people is a “stark reminder of how our current foreign policy has alienated our historic allies in Palestine, Iran and the wider Middle East”.

Sharing an article on X, Rahul Gandhi said, “Congress Parliamentary Party President Sonia Gandhi through her editorial urges India to regain its independent foreign policy, promote humanitarian values ​​and talk about Gaza with moral clarity.”