India betrays Palestine

It all started with a tweet by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wishing the Jewish people a happy Chanukah in Hebrew at the fag end of a tumultuous 2014, which registered approximately 2,200 Palestinian fatalities and over 11,000 injuries due to no-holds-barred Israeli aggression.
And now a myopic Modi is all set to put action behind his words by moving away from the conventional Indian foreign policy position of unconditionally siding with the oppressed Palestinians. If Modi has his way, New Delhi will henceforth oppose all future UN resolutions on Palestinian statehood, thus exposing the Hindu nationalists’ aversion to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine dispute. However, India’s ambivalence on issues concerning self-determination and human rights is not new. Is New Delhi’s exploitation of the Tibetan people to checkmate a powerful China and thereafter dumping the same community to court Beijing years later any different from what Modi’s administration plans to mete out to the poor Palestinians, who looked up to Mahatma Gandhi’s India for moral support throughout their struggle?
Worse still, this tectonic shift stands in complete contrast to the vision of Modi’s illustrious predecessor from saffron fold, A.B. Vajpayee — a staunch pacifist. Vajpayee had vociferously empathized with the Palestinian cause of statehood. Speaking at the UN general assembly, an eloquent Vajpayee minced no words in reaffirming the guiding principles that are fundamental to the establishment of enduring peace in Middle East. “The Palestinian people have an inalienable right to self-determination and to a nation-state of their own” thundered Vajpayee (who was recently conferred with the highest civilian honor for his invaluable contribution to domestic and international politics) as assembled dignitaries listened in rapt attention. Vajpayee was also critical of the Israeli acquisition of territories by force and unequivocally called for vacation of Palestinian-Arab land illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.

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