Explained : Opposition tears into ‘silent’ govt and Its Impact

The assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in joint military strikes by the United States of America and Israel has been unequivocally condemned by Opposition parties in India even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government maintains a studied silence on the development.

The strikes on Iran began days after Modi returned to New Delhi from his two-day official visit to Israel, during which he held consultations with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and also addressed the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament). With Iran confirming Khamenei’s “martyrdom” in the joint US-Israel strikes, the military conflict in the region has already escalated steeply, putting at risk lives of millions of Indians living in Iran and the wider Gulf region at risk.

PM’s deafening silence

Expectedly, members of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc have demanded that not only must the Centre expedite efforts to ensure the safety—and, wherever necessary, the safe return—of Indians but also that the Prime Minister must break his silence on the joint strikes at Iran by the US and Israel.

Also read: 1,200 Indian medical students, mostly from J&K, stuck in Iran, appeal for evacuation

With Parliament’s Budget session set to resume on March 9, sources in the INDIA bloc have told The Federal that the Opposition plans to demand that Modi and Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar “must explain in both Houses of Parliament India’s foreign policy engagement with the stakeholders directly or indirectly involved in the issue (Israel, US, Iran and other affected countries of the Gulf)”.

The INDIA bloc’s largest constituent, the Congress party, has also slammed the Modi regime’s muted response to a “war unleashed on Iran that has involved targeted assassinations”, dubbing it as a “betrayal of India’s values, principles, concerns, and interests”.

Damage to India

The sternly worded response from the Congress is in line with the party’s previous criticism of Modi’s sycophantic address to the Knesset last week, during which the Prime Minister described Israel and India as “Fatherland” and “Motherland”, respectively, while making no direct appeal to the Zionist Netanyahu regime of ending its ongoing war on Palestinians in Gaza. Jairam Ramesh, the Congress’ communications in-charge, had called Modi’s address to the Knesset “a display of shameful moral cowardice”.

Opposition leaders The Federal spoke to said the killing of Khamenei had already triggered a wave of protests among Shia Muslims in different parts of India, given Khamenei’s religious and spiritual importance to the community despite his deeply controversial political leadership of Iran.

Also read: Protests across India over killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader: ‘A thousand Khameneis will rise’

A senior Samajwadi Party leader from Allahabad, which has a sizeable Shia population, said on condition of anonymity that the Modi regime’s “refusal to condemn the US-Israel strikes and his (Modi’s) failure to urge for restoration of dialogue with Iran will only exacerbate these frustrations further”.

Betraying Iran, a long-time ally

Pawan Khera, the Congress’ media department chief, has also pointed out that Iran had been a long-standing ally of India and had played an instrumental role back in 1994, at the urging of the then Congress government of Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, in blocking a “West-backed resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission, pushed through the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), condemning India over Kashmir”. Khera said had the resolution made it through the UNHRC, “the matter would have moved to the UN Security Council, where the same Western powers were prepared to push for economic sanctions” against India.

“It is that Iran, an ally of India, which our Prime Minister is betraying with his silence today after having made a mockery of our long-standing foreign policy before the entire world with his address to the Knesset and his complete and repeated surrender before (US President) Donald Trump,” Khera told The Federal.

Also read: War on Iran delivers a body blow to already battered Indian airlines

In a post on X, Congress’s Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi said, “The targeted assassination of the leadership of a sovereign nation by the so called leaders of the democratic world and the killing of multitudes of innocent people is despicable and deserves strong condemnation, no matter what the proclaimed reason for it is. It is tragic that multiple nations have now been dragged into conflict. The world needs peace not more unnecessary wars… I do hope that having genuflected before the Prime Minister of Israel and President Trump, our Prime Minister makes every effort to bring all Indian citizens in the affected countries back home to safety.”

CPI(M) reaction

Other constituents of the INDIA bloc have been just as stinging in their response to the developments in Iran and the broader region. The CPI(M), which had earlier condemned both Modi’s Israel visit as well as the US-Israel joint attacks on Iran, has called Khamenei’s assassination “utterly reprehensible”.

“While we have differences with certain non-democratic measures adopted by the Iranian government, the murder of their Supreme Leader and other top officials by the Imperialist United States and Zionist Israel in violation of Iran’s national sovereignty and international law is utterly reprehensible and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby said in a statement, while adding that “when world peace is under threat, India should play a lead role in rallying all democratic voices together so that there is a cessation of violent attacks and countermeasures.”

Kashmir tense

While Shia organisations have called for protests in different parts of the country against Khamenei’s assassination, the situation is particularly tense in Kashmir, given that the Valley has both, a large population of Shias and a historic spiritual, religious and cultural link to Iran and Khamenei.

Also read: Owaisi slams US-Israel attacks on Iran, calls Khamenei’s killing ‘immoral’

Kashmir’s chief cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and his outfit, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Ulama, a collective of various religious and cultural outfits in Kashmir, have called for a “complete strike” across Jammu and Kashmir on Monday (March 2), while urging the people to “observe it with unity, dignity, and complete peacefulness”.

“Deeply saddened and outraged at the brutal killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei by the US and Israel that has shaken the Muslim world. The people of JK collectively condemn this brutality and the ongoing aggression against Iran, as well as the massacre of innocent girl students in Minab. In this hour of immense sorrow, our hearts beat with the resilient people of Iran. May Allah grant strength to the oppressed, elevate the martyrs, and bring swift justice to those responsible for this. This is a moment for the Ummah to rise above divisions and stand united and register our protest and solidarity against this killing and the continued aggression in the region,” the Mirwaiz said in a statement.

Former JK chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has said her party, the PDP, will extend its full support to the shutdown call given by the Mirwaiz, while chief minister Omar Abdullah has urged the Union Territory’s police and administration, controlled by the Lieutenant Governor, to “exercise utmost restraint and refrain from using force or restrictive measures” against those who are mourning in J&K.