Nowhere has he asked the Israeli counterpart to stop aggression and genocide in Gaza and now Lebanon. In the very first sentence he has repeated the same rhetoric that terrorism has no place in our world. This implies direct reference to Hamas and Hezbollah who are being repeatedly labelled as the terrorist organisations by the Israeli government. Shri Modi’s quote on X smacks of an indirect support to Israel in dealing with the terrorists through military action.

There is no justification in the Hamas’s action of killing innocent civilians and taking them hostages on 7th October last year. However if we quote the UN Secretary General António Guterres remarks to the Security Council on 24th October 2023 that “it is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum; the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing. But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.

In his quote on X Narendra Modi has not mentioned the response of the Israeli Prime Minister. This obviously means that. Netanyahu has paid no heed to our Prime Minister’s suggestion for de-escalation. Israel has already shown its intention to increase the aggression and even threatened whole of the Middle East. They have defied all appeals by the UNO, decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court (ICC). They have cared two hoots to the appeal for de-escalation by the US President Joe Biden, even though we well understand the double standards of the US government as they are the ones who have armed Israel heavily and are still supplying them the bombs and intelligence. A US senator has admitted that the 2000 pound Bomb used to kill Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon was supplied by the US. The US has openly stated that they would stand by Israel in case Iran is involved in the war against Israel.

No wonder US has strategic and economic interest in the region. It is unfortunate that neither the US nor Israel have any concern over the health and humanitarian crisis as result of war. It is further disappointing that Indian Prime Minister has not shown any empathy towards the women and children being killed in Gaza in his X quote. It is also to be noted that Indian government has asked its citizens to evacuate Lebanon while sending the workers to Israel. It is also now amply clear that the present Zionist regime has no interest in the release of hostages. Their sole motive is to annihilate the Palestinians and expand its area of control.

In fact there is no formidable force/organisation with trust worthy credentials to enforce a collective decision to end war. It is in this context that we are reminded of Non Aligned Movement (NAM) which was collective voice of developing countries who had gained freedom from the colonial rule after long drawn struggles. These countries looked upon India to stand by them.

It would be apt to take note of the Bandung conference which was held in April, 1955, in which representatives from twenty-nine governments of Asian and African nations gathered in Bandung, Indonesia to discuss peace and the role of the Third World in the Cold War, economic development, and decolonization. The conference's stated aims were to promote Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation and to oppose colonialism or neo-colonialism by any nation.

This conference laid the foundation of NAM which was formally formed on September 1, 1961 in Belgrade, (then Yugoslavia, now Serbia) under the leadership of Joseph Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Sukarno of Indonesia. It was founded with the view to advancing interests of developing countries in the context of Cold War confrontation. In its first three decades, the Movement played a crucial role in decolonization, formation of new independent states, and democratization of international relations.

The movement became a positive force for peace and democracy. It stood with the just struggle of Palestinian people and supported the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. It also vociferously talked of disarmament and for abolition of nuclear weapons. We are witness to 7th Non Aligned summit held in Delhi in 1983 which applauded the presence of Yasser Arafat, the undisputed leader of Palestinian people. The Indian government as the leader in the NAM never overtly or covertly stood by the Zionist regime of Israel.

Unfortunately after the collapse of Soviet Union, which always supported to objectives of NAM, the forces promoting arms race and aggression got strengthened.

The time is never lost. Today when several parts of the world are under serious conflicts, particularly the war in Ukraine with explicit support of NATO and genocide of the innocent as a result of Israeli aggression, the NAM could have played a positive role in defusing these tensions. India must come forward to unite the developing countries with a positive attitude instead of taking sides with the war mongers and having arms deal with Israel. (IPA Service)