'Raises serious doubts on our foreign policy': Sonia Gandhi on Modi govt's 'silence' on Khamenei assassination

New Delhi: Amid India not condemning the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Congress on Tuesday stepped up attack on the Modi government with top leader Sonia Gandhi saying that the silence is “not neutral” but “abdication” and raises “serious doubts” about the direction and credibility of the country's foreign policy.

Saying Modi's “political endorsement” of Israel “without moral clarity” marks a “visible and troubling departure”, she also called for a debate “without evasion" in Parliament when it reconvenes next Monday for the second part of Budget Session on the government's "disturbing silence" over the breakdown of international order.

Sonia's remarks come two days after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge issued a statement outlining the party's stand on the issue. While expressing condolences to Iranian people and the Shia community across the world over the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Kharge had said no external power has the authority to engineer regime change and such actions amount to imperialism.

In her article in Indian Express, she said the killing of a Head of State “in the midst of ongoing negotiations” marks a “grave rupture” in contemporary international relations and beyond the shock of the event, “what stands out starkly” was New Delhi's “silence”. At moments when the rules-based order is under visible strain, she added, silence is “abdication”.

Finding fault with the government for not condemning the assassination and the violation of Iranian sovereignty, she said Modi confined himself to condemning Iran’s retaliatory strike on the UAE without addressing the sequence of events that preceded it.

He “uttered platitudes” about his "deep concern" and talked of "dialogue and diplomacy", which was “precisely what was underway before the massive unprovoked attacks” by Israel and the US, she said.

“When the targeted killing of a foreign leader draws no clear defence of sovereignty or international law from our country and impartiality is abandoned, it raises serious doubts about the direction and credibility of our foreign policy. Silence, in this instance, is not neutral,” she said.

“The targeted killing of a foreign head of state, the erosion of international norms, and the widening instability in West Asia are not peripheral matters; they touch directly upon India's strategic interests and moral commitments. A clear articulation of India's position is overdue. Democratic accountability demands no less, and strategic clarity requires it,” she said.

"India has long invoked the ideal of 'vasudhaiva kutumbakam' - the world is one family. That civilisational ethos is not a slogan for ceremonial diplomacy; it implies a commitment to justice, restraint and dialogue, even when doing so is inconvenient. At moments when the rules-based order is under visible strain, silence is abdication," she said.

Referring to the UN Charter that prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, she said the “erosion of international norms becomes easier to normalise” when the targeted killing of a serving Head of State passes “without principled objection from the world's largest democracy”.

She recalled Modi's visit to Israel 48 hours before the assassination where he reiterated unequivocal support for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, even as the Gaza conflict continues to draw global outrage, and said he confined himself to condemning Iran's retaliatory strike on the UAE without addressing the sequence of events that preceded it, when the Global South and India's partners in BRICS like Russian and China have kept their distance.

“Why should countries in the Global South trust India to defend their territorial integrity tomorrow if it appears hesitant to defend that principle today?” she questioned.

Remembering AB Vajpayee's 2001 Iran visit, Sonia said the former Prime Minister's acknowledgement of long-standing relations seems to "hold no relevance" for our current government. She said Iran came to India's aid when a section in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation sought to bring a resolution on Kashmir in UNHCR.

Sonia acknowledged that India's ties with Israel have expanded and it is precisely because New Delhi maintains relations with both Tehran and Tel Aviv that it possesses diplomatic space to urge restraint.

"But such space depends on credibility. Credibility, in turn, rests on the perception that India speaks from principle rather than expediency. This is not merely a moral proposition; it is a strategic necessity,” she said, adding India's ability to safeguard its 10 millions citizens living across the Gulf has rested on its “credibility as an independent actor, not as a proxy”.