{"id":7695,"date":"2026-03-03T20:24:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T15:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/?p=7695"},"modified":"2026-03-03T20:24:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T15:24:30","slug":"sonia-gandhi-criticizes-modi-govt-over-indias-shift-in-middle-east-diplomacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/2026\/03\/03\/sonia-gandhi-criticizes-modi-govt-over-indias-shift-in-middle-east-diplomacy","title":{"rendered":"Sonia Gandhi criticizes Modi govt over India\u2019s shift in Middle East diplomacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Delhi :<\/strong> Senior Indian Congress leader and former party president Sonia Gandhi<\/strong> has sharply condemned the Modi-led government, accusing it of abandoning India\u2019s long-standing policy of maintaining a balanced approach between Israel<\/strong> and Iran<\/strong>. She argued that the government now favors Israel while neglecting strategic ties with Tehran.<\/p>\n

In an opinion piece published in an Indian newspaper, Gandhi criticized the government\u2019s \u201cinaction and silence\u201d following the targeted killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/strong> in coordinated strikes carried out by the United States and Israel. She described this lack of response not as neutrality, but as a \u201cdereliction of duty\u201d and a serious deviation from India\u2019s traditional diplomatic stance in West Asia.<\/p>\n

Gandhi emphasized that India\u2019s foreign policy had historically aimed to maintain equilibrium between Israel and Iran, grounded in centuries-old cultural links and strategic interests. She highlighted Tehran\u2019s role as a key partner in regional projects such as the Chabahar Port<\/strong> and the Zahedan connectivity project<\/strong>, which have bolstered India\u2019s trade and regional access.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy focusing on high-profile visits to Israel without a matching engagement with Iran, and now remaining silent over the assassination of a sitting head of state, the government has undermined decades of careful diplomacy,\u201d Gandhi wrote.<\/p>\n

She also criticized the government for prioritizing political optics, defense deals with Israel, and alignment with Western powers over India\u2019s national interests and ethical responsibilities. According to Gandhi, official statements largely condemned Iran\u2019s retaliatory measures while giving little attention to the initial unprovoked strikes, raising questions about India\u2019s credibility on the global stage.<\/p>\n

Gandhi described this approach as \u201cmoral cowardice,\u201d noting that it risks isolating India among Global South nations<\/strong> and BRICS partners<\/strong> such as Russia and China, who have favored measured responses emphasizing sovereignty and conflict de-escalation.<\/p>\n

She posed a critical question about India\u2019s global role: if the country hesitates to uphold international norms and sovereignty now, how can other nations in the Global South rely on India to defend these principles in the future?<\/p>\n

Concluding her article, Gandhi urged that when Parliament resumes the second part of the Budget session, lawmakers should openly debate the government\u2019s \u201cdisturbing silence\u201d on international diplomacy and the apparent erosion of balanced foreign policy, without attempts at evasion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Delhi : Senior Indian Congress leader and former party president Sonia Gandhi has sharply condemned the Modi-led government, accusing it of abandoning India\u2019s long-standing policy of maintaining a balanced approach between Israel and Iran. She argued that the government now favors Israel while neglecting strategic ties with Tehran. In an opinion piece published in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":7696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[160,2294],"class_list":["post-7695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-headline","tag-youdigital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7697,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7695\/revisions\/7697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}