"India Should Also Stand Behind Palestinians": Shashi Tharoor To NDTV

Congress under fire for its statement on the Hamas attack on Israel, the party's senior leader Shashi Tharoor said today that the terror group does not represent Palestine. "The country should not forget the cause of Palestine," he told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

"India has so far -- judging by the Prime Minister's Tweets -- has taken a stand unambiguously on the side of Israelis who have been subjected to this unjust and inhumane attack by the Hamas. That's fine as far as it goes. But it doesn't go far enough because there is a broader picture that seems to be missing from the traditional Indian position," Mr Tharoor said.

The reference was to India's support to the Palestinian cause that started with Jawaharlal Nehru and continued till the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh.

In a statement today, the Congress Working Committee, the party's highest-decision-making body, had expressed its "dismay and anguish" over the war. But it also underscored the Palestinian people's right to "land (and) self-government, and to live with dignity and respect".

The statement came under BJP attack, with the party accusing the Congress of supporting terrorism and being a "hostage to minority vote bank politics".

"Congress's CWC resolution on the Israel war is a classic example of how Indian foreign policy was hostage to Congress's minority vote bank politics, until Modi happened," said BJP MP Tejasvi Surya.

India did not support the formation of Israel till 1950 – two years after the Jewish state came into being, since Nehru, having experienced the horrors of partition, did not approve of the formation of another nation on religious lines. There was also concern about Muslim sensitivities in the country in the aftermath of the partition.

But India's stance began to change slowly with its growing affinity to the US. In February 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel.

But Mr Tharoor said today that the Palestinians have as much right to live in peace as the Israelis.

"There is a broader policy which should have been affirmed which is that of equal rights of both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, security and dignity behind safe borders," Mr Tharoor said.

For the bulk of the time since the peace initiatives a Century ago, the Palestinian side, particularly the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) headquartered in Ramallah has been keeping its end of the bargain, and it is the Israeli side that hasn't been doing do, Mr Tharoor added, referring to the Israeli occupation and "dehumanizing activities".