New Delhi: A delegation of 16 opposition leaders from the INDIA alliance met the Palestinian Ambassador in New Delhi on Monday and expressed solidarity with Palestinians during the ongoing conflict. They also passed a resolution emphasising the international community’s role in ensuring the rights and dignity of Palestinian people.“The international community must exert pressure on Israel to abide by international laws and respect the rights and dignity of the Palestinian people,” the delegation’s resolution stated, according to The Indian Express. “We strongly condemn the indiscriminate bombing of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel, which we believe amounts to an attempt to genocide. We urge an immediate cessation of all hostilities to prevent further loss of innocent lives and the destruction of homes and infrastructure.”The opposition leaders said that the international community should recognise the state of Palestine along the 1967 borders in accordance with the UN resolution. “Such recognition is a crucial step towards ensuring a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict,” the resolution stated.“The Government of India doesn’t want the voice of people to be known and that is very, very problematic. So, we thought that we should let the Palestinian ambassador know that there is also a different voice in India—the general voice of the people is for peace, for the Palestinian people’s right to their homeland,” Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI (ML) general secretary, said, according to Hindustan Times.“The government is almost keeping quiet now and this amounts to endorsing Israel’s project of genocide—which is a huge departure in terms of foreign policy,” he continued.Bahujan Samaj Party MP Kunwar Danish Ali told The Indian Express, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s social media post had sent a message that the entire India was with Israel. That created a confusion. The fact is India is standing with Palestine.”While Modi had posted on X that India is standing with Israel, the Ministry of External Affairs has since had to clarify that India’s position of supporting a sovereign Palestinian state.
