Janata Dal (United) General Secretary KC Tyagi on Sunday joined Opposition leaders in urging the Centre to stop the supply of arms and ammunitions to Israel amid Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza, The Indian Express reported.
The Janata Dal (United) is among the key allies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and is part of the National Democratic Alliance government.
Tyagi and Opposition leaders on Sunday met Mohammed Makram Balawi, the secretary general of the League of Parliamentarians for Al Quds, in Delhi.
The League is an independent institution that coordinates global parliamentary efforts in support of the Palestinian cause in accordance with United Nations resolutions and for maintaining peace in West Asia.
The meeting was jointly organised by Tyagi and Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Javed Ali Khan, the newspaper reported.
Tyagi told The Indian Express that the Janata Dal (United) has supported the Palestinian cause since the party’s early days.
“The Indian government, including that of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, also has lent support to the Palestinian cause,” he was quoted as saying. “We want the killing of elderly, women and children to stop in Gaza and also want UN resolutions regarding Israel and Palestine to be respected.”
Tyagi and the Opposition leaders released a statement after the meeting on Sunday, urging the Union government not to supply arms to Israel.
In February, reports claimed that Delhi was supplying Israel with drones manufactured in Hyderabad. This was part of a joint venture between Israel’s Elbit Systems and industrialist Gautam Adani’s Adani Group.
In May, Spain had denied permission to an Israel-bound ship carrying arms from Chennai to stop over at the Cartagena port in the country’s southeast. The refusal to allow it was in line with Spain’s policy to ban the exports of all arms to Israel since the war on Gaza began. The Danish-flagged ship was carrying 27 tonnes of explosive material from Chennai to a port in Israel’s Haifa.
India has so far neither confirmed nor denied supplying weapons to Israel.
Besides Tyagi and Khan, the signatories of the statement included Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh, party MLA Pankaj Pushkar, former Lok Sabha MP Kunwar Danish Ali of the Congress and Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha MP Mohibullah Nadvi.
Congress spokesperson Meem Afzal and former MP and Rashtrawadi Samaj Party’s ex-chief Mohammed Adeeb were also among the signatories.
“As a nation that has always championed the cause of justice and human rights, India cannot be complicit in this genocide,” the statement said.
The legislators also condemned the “Zionist aggression and the heinous genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel”.
They said Israel’s military assault on Gaza is not only an affront to humanity, but also a violation of international law, and the principles of justice and peace, according to The Hindu.
Israel’s military offensive against Gaza began on October 7 after Hamas launched an incursion into southern Israel, killing 1,200 persons and taking over 200 hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza since then. The attacks have killed at least 41,000 persons, including 16,500 children.
India has for long supported the “two-state solution” to the conflict.
After the war broke out, Delhi said on October 12: “India always advocated the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine, living within secure and recognised borders, side by side at peace with Israel”.
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