Shameful betrayal of our anti-Colonial legacy: Pawan Khera slams India’s UN abstention on Gaza ceasefire

New Delhi: The Congress party has launched a scathing attack on the Modi government after India abstained from a United Nations General Assembly resolution on June 12, which called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, calling it a “shameful betrayal of our anti-Colonial legacy.”

This marks the fourth time in three years that India has chosen not to vote on a resolution critical of Israel’s military operations in the region, which have resulted in the deaths of more than 55,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children.

Congress leader Pawan Khera voiced his condemnation in a strongly-worded post on social media platform X, describing the abstention as “an act of staggering moral cowardice – a shameful betrayal of our anti-Colonial legacy and the values of our own freedom struggle.”

Khera’s statement invoked India’s historic solidarity with the Palestinian cause. He reminded the nation that India was the first non-Arab country to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in 1974, hosted Yasser Arafat at the 7th NAM Summit in New Delhi in 1983, and formally recognised Palestinian statehood in 1988.

“We stood for justice not as strategy, but as principle. But today, that proud legacy lies in ruins,” Khera wrote.

He also criticised the Modi government’s shift in policy, pointing out that India had voted in favour of a Gaza ceasefire resolution in December 2024, but has now performed “a craven U-turn.” Khera accused the government of seeking “photo-ops even if they involve blood-soaked handshakes.”

“A BJP MP’s recent theatrics of glorifying India’s support of Palestine exposes this abstention as an epitome of hypocrisy and this government’s schizophrenic foreign policy,” he added.

“When India refuses to defend innocent lives abroad, we squander the moral capital that protects Indian lives abroad. The world does not listen to the nation that speaks loudest, it listens to a nation that speaks with clarity, courage and conscience. And India must never surrender that voice,” he added.

The Ministry of External Affairs has yet to issue a formal statement explaining the abstention, but India’s consistent pattern of abstaining on Gaza-related resolutions signals a deeper alignment shift in foreign policy, one increasingly cautious of upsetting its growing strategic partnership with Israel.

The abstention comes at a time when Israeli airstrikes have expanded across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and even Iran, sparking a humanitarian catastrophe and international condemnation.

India had voted in favour of a UNGA resolution for a ceasefire in December 2024, making this a significant departure from India’s position just six months ago.

–IANS