Foreign policy hawks cry foul as India votes pro-Gaza in UNHRC

In a major shift from its earlier stance, India voted in favour of the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution to launch a probe into Israel's offensive on Gaza. But the move has made right leaning pundits unhappy, particularly since it contradicts the carefully neutral stance India has maintained during the course of the Gaza offensive.

Sadanand Dhume, Wall Street Journal columnist tweeted that India's vote against Israel was "disgraceful."

Disgraceful vote against Israel at UNHRC notwithstanding Indian public opinion is the most pro-Israel it's ever been. http://t.co/Hq0jc7Nctg

— Sadanand Dhume (@dhume) July 23, 2014

In a short blog post on the American Enterprise Institute website, Dhume argues that there has been a surge in pro-Israel sentiment among Indians, something the government wholly ignored by voting against Israeli interests in the UNHRC. Dhume writes:

"Needless to say, this upsurge of support for Israel doesn’t mean that India has entirely outgrown its traditional Third Worldist sympathies for the Palestinian cause. Leftists of various persuasions still hark back to Nehru and condemn India’s ties with Israel as some sort of moral outrage. Nonetheless, compared with the past, when the bloodstained Yasser Arafat could always count on a diplomatic bear hug from Indira Gandhi, things are better."

In the days leading up to the UNHRC vote, the opposition had repeatedly demanded that the government hold a discussion on Gaza in Parliament, which at first was refused. Later, when the discussion was held, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj told the parliament, "There should be one joint message that wherever there is violence, it should be condemned. We should tell both the nations — Israel and Palestine — to accept Egypt's offer of talks. The same message should go from this House, the government and the entire nation".

But the UNHRC vote, in the view of many right-leaning commentators is a shameful refuation of this position:

The government's UN vote against Israel is not a minor error, it is a monumental blunder. Pretending otherwise would be hypocritical

— Ashok Malik (@MalikAshok) July 23, 2014

The Modi sarkar's initial position was lauded by right-leaning commentators who argued that India's true interests lie with Israel, and not in siding with a terrorist organisation like Hamas.

Indrani Bagchi in her piece for Economic Times had argued:

Representational image of the UN Security Council. Reuters

"For all MPs who confuse Hamas with the Palestinian Authority, Swaraj should point out that Hamas is another name for the Muslim Brotherhood. If we have problems with the ideology of the latter, our outpouring of sympathies for Palestinians may overshadow India's legitimate revulsion for Hamas."

In his column for NDTV, Ashok Mallik argues that Hamas could have started or established a peace process when they got voted into office in the Palestinian authority--an opportunity they've squandered since. "[I]t is true that support for the Palestinian cause has declined in India since say the 1970s. Actually this is a worldwide phenomenon, made worse by the fact that the Palestinian leadership - or competing Palestinian leaderships - have not been able to take charge of any government or authority they have been given."

Others point to the rise of ISIL, as does Swapan Dasgupta who writes:

"For the moment, going purely by the extremely conservative estimates of India’s intelligence community, there are 18 known Indian nationals who are helping ISIL go on a bloody rampage. However, there are fears that the numbers could be much higher. Another wave of Islamist radicalism, targeting the ‘unbelievers’, seems to be on the cards. At this juncture, the last thing India needs is a onrush of romantic infatuation with Hamas terrorists with whom ISIL has an implicit commonality of interests."

Referring to the opposition's repeated calls for condemning Israel in the Rajya Sabha--a demand Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj did not give into--Swapan Dasgupta writes that the demand is rooted for condemnation is a political move to seem secular:

"The orchestrated furore over India’s alleged insensitivity to what a senior Trinamool Congress MP bizarrely described as Israel’s “genocide” against the Palestinian people is the first serious attempt to get over the post-election demoralisation and reclaim lost ground. It is a calculated attempt to inform the Modi dispensation that while it may have a functioning majority, their veto is still intact."

Swaraj was praised by foreign policy hawks for blocking the Rajya Sabha resolution condemning Israel, and condemned by others. But the UNHRC vote seems to have left everyone bemused. As Hindustant Times columnist Abhijit Majumder tweeted, "In Rio, Modi signs BRICS censure of Israel. In Delhi, his govt blocks #Gaza debate. At UNHRC, India votes Palestine. Abki baar, decide yaar"

With inputs from PTI