"Never Seen Such Confusion": Sharad Pawar On India's Palestine Stand

Launching a salvo against the BJP government at the Centre amid the Israel-Hamas war, NCP founder Sharad Pawar on Saturday said he had never seen such confusion in the Indian government on the Palestine-Gaza issue. 

Pointing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statements since the war broke out on October 7, the Nationalist Congress party leader said in Hindi, "In his first statement, the Prime Minister spoke of total support for Israel. When reactions came from other countries and from within India, the foreign minister took a different line and spoke in support of Palestine. This shows there is confusion in the government, they are saying different things."

Mr Pawar said India's policy has been to support Palestine, not Israel. "Attacks have been taking place in the Gaza sector, hospitals are being bombed... India has never supported this. There is total confusion in the government's policy," he added.

PM Modi was one of the first world leaders to condemn Hamas' surprise attack as an act of terror. On the day of the attack, he had posted on X, formerly Twitter, "Deeply shocked by the news of terrorist attacks in Israel. Our thoughts and prayers are with the innocent victims and their families. We stand in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour."

The Ministry of External Affairs had later reiterated India's "longstanding and consistent" position on Palestine and said that the country has always advocated a "sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine" living side-by-side, at peace, with Israel.

After the bombing of the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza, in which hundreds of people were killed, PM Modi said he had spoken to the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to convey his condolences. He also said that he had "reiterated India's long-standing principled position on the Israel-Palestine issue".

Earlier in the day, India abstained from a vote at the UN General Assembly calling for an immediate humanitarian truce in the war between Israel and Hamas. This sparked a slugfest between the Congress and the BJP. 

'Not Briefed Properly'

Mr Pawar also hit back at PM Modi for criticising him for only doing "politics in the name of farmers". The NCP founder said the PM did not seem to be briefed properly when he spoke in Shirdi on Thursday, and had praised him in the past. 

"The Prime Minister's post is an important post. A PM should give a statement keeping his constitutional stature in mind. I don't know why he targeted me. But I think whatever he said is because of the fact that he was not briefed rightly. Whatever statement the PM had made on me, I will respond to that keeping the importance and dignity of the post in mind," Mr Pawar said. 

Pointing to the crises he had faced during his tenure as agriculture minister in the UPA government from 2004-2014 and his achievements despite them, Mr Pawar alleged that the BJP government at the Centre had failed to live up to its promise of doubling farmers' income by 2022.

"If you see the nationwide picture, there are a lot of states where the BJP is not in power or it has come to power after breaking up other parties. Wherever there is a BJP government, they are on weak footing. This weakness and fear of losing power may have forced him to make such statements," said Mr Pawar.