Taking sides

NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao was known for making his silences speak for him. He once famously said, “Not taking a decision is a decision too.” As we have seen since 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while being an altogether more decisive politician, is no less an exponent of eloquent silences.

In the face of any crisis, his default response is to publicly say no more than what passes for a platitude. His critics say this is evasion, his supporters swear it is meant to let his actions speak louder.

So what explains the PM’s alacrity in supporting the state of Israel in its present confrontation with Hamas? Belying his reputation for reticence when challenging questions of state arise, Modi put his reaction to the Hamas attack out on X within hours, almost as quickly as the western sponsors of Israel did.

The response was notable for equating Hamas’s action with terrorism and unequivocal in its support for Israel. “We stand in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour,” the Prime Minister tweeted, and was quickly retweeted by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

As a foreign policy pronouncement, this clear articulation of support for a state that’s engaged in a century-long conflict with the Palestinian people marks a major departure for India.

Conventionally, New Delhi’s approach to international conflicts was to play the role of an even-handed peacemaker rather than a partisan player. This derived from Nehruvian non-alignment. T

he syndrome was a compound of India’s desire to be regarded as an elder counsel to the world—later given the pretentious moniker Vishwaguru—and its expedient need to stay out of the Cold War.

Although the end of the Cold War led to the dissipation of the Non-aligned Movement, India continued to adopt a non-partisan attitude to global events, even where there was a liberal-democratic consensus.

We parsed our phrases on democracy in Myanmar. We remain ambivalent to Iran—while adhering to US sanctions against Tehran. Regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, we sat on the fence, delivering homilies like “the era of war is over.”

Israel is dear to the government, as evident in the many embraces Modi exchanged with Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Israel in 2017. Not only is Jerusalem much-admired by the Hindutva ideology that propelled Modi to power, it is as big a supplier of arms and munitions to India as Russia.

India’s participation in the Indo-Pacific geostrategic alliance against a potential China-Russia axis, predisposes it to a partnership with Israel. The recent announcement at the G-20 summit of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor cements this partnership.

The Mundhra Port in Gujarat and the Haifa port in Israel are important nodes in this emerging economic corridor, and it helps that Indian businesses have made hefty investments in ports along this corridor.

However, the smell of duplicity hangs over India’s dealings with Israel and Palestine. Despite the newfound ardour between Modi and Netanyahu, support to the Palestinian cause remains on the books of India’s Ministry of External Affairs whose website traces it back to 1974 when diplomatic relations were established with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, although it had no land and no sovereignty.

To this day, India declares avid support to the people of Palestine on Nov 29, the UN Palestine Solidarity Day. To Hindutva supporters, Modi’s support to Israel may sound like a bold pronouncement, but it will do nothing to buttress India’s much-vaunted Vishwaguru stature.