BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi attacks Congress, says doing vote-bank politics

    The BJP on Monday accused the Congress of being driven by petty, vote-bank politics in its stand on the Israel-Hamas conflict and asked when was the last time its senior most leader wrote in the media on an international conflict.

  BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi’s sharp attack on the Congress came after its former president Sonia Gandhi said in a newspaper article her party is “strongly opposed” to India’s abstention on the recent UN resolution which called for humanitarian truce amid unfolding crisis in Gaza amid massive Israeli military attack on the tiny territory.

Government sources have said the absence of any mention of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists in the resolution was the reason for India’s abstention as there can be no equivocation on terror.

Gandhi criticised the government’s decision and said “humanity is on trial now”, as she called for the loudest and most powerful voices to demand a cessation of military activity.

Hitting back at the Congress, Trivedi told a press conference that there can be no politics on terrorism and international issues. There should be no scope for ifs and buts on terrorism and India’s stand should be clear, categorical and unequivocal, he said.

When was the last time the senior most Congress leader wrote on an international conflict, he asked.

“It is sad that the Congress policy is not in line with India’s prestige and dignity but is inspired by petty vote-bank politics. Whatever the Congress is doing is against India’s policy,” he claimed.

Even indirect support to terrorism is damaging to humanity and India’s security and interests, he said, criticising the Congress.

Trivedi said it was during the Rajiv Gandhi government’s time that the ground was laid for boosting diplomatic ties with Israel before the P V Narasimha Rao-led dispensation established full diplomatic relations between the two countries.

As the then leader of the opposition, Atal Bihar Vajpayee had travelled to the UN to articulate India’s stand on a host of issues and spoke in one voice with the then government headed by Rao, Trivedi noted.

He asserted that there has been no change in the government’s policy on the Palestine issue as India stands for two-State solution through peaceful means.

Noting that a Congress Working Committee resolution had made no mention of the Hamas attack, he wondered if the party’s tagline is “Judega Kattarpanthi, Jeetega Hamas” on the lines of “Judega Bharat, Jeetega India”, the catchphrase for the opposition’s INDIA bloc.