India’s Silence On Khamenei Killing: Sonia slams Modi govt
Demands debate in Parliament
New Delhi: In a scathing criticism of the Modi government, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said its silence on the targeted assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is not neutral but an abdication and raises serious doubts about the direction and credibility of India's foreign policy.
The former Congress president also demanded that when Parliament reconvenes for the second part of the budget session, the government's "disturbing silence" over the breakdown of international order must be debated openly and without evasion.
In her article published in a national newspaper, Gandhi said there is an urgent need for “us to rediscover” the moral strength and articulate it with clarity and commitment. “On March 1, Iran confirmed that its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei had been assassinated in targeted strikes carried out the previous day by the United States and Israel.
The killing of a sitting head of state in the midst of ongoing negotiations marks a grave rupture in contemporary international relations,” Gandhi said.
Yet, beyond the shock of the event, what stands out equally starkly is New Delhi’s silence, she said.
The Government of India has refrained from condemning the assassination or the violation of Iranian sovereignty, she noted.
‘Initially, ignoring the massive US-Israeli onslaught, the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) confined himself to condemning Iran’s retaliatory strike on the UAE without addressing the sequence of events that preceded it. Later, he uttered platitudes about his ‘deep concern’ and talked of ‘dialogue and diplomacy’ -- which is precisely what was underway before the massive unprovoked attacks launched by Israel and the US,” Gandhi said.
