India's Voice Is Strategic, Not Silent

News18

2 days ago

To say India has 'lost its voice,' as some critics argue, is to misunderstand what that voice sounds like today.
In moments of war, outrage is easy. Diplomacy is not. And in the shadow of the Gaza crisis, with bombs falling, civilians dying, and global opinion fracturing, the urge to take a moral stand can feel overwhelming, especially for a democracy like India, long seen as a voice for the voiceless. But to say India has 'lost its voice," as some critics argue, is to misunderstand what that voice sounds like today.
It's not the voice of X (previously Twitter) diplomacy. It's not always loud. But it is deliberate, strategic, and deeply shaped by history.
India was one of the earliest champions of the Palestinian cause. In 1974, it became the first non-Arab country to officially recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). By 1988, it had recognised the State of Palestine. This was not just foreign policy, it was an extension of India's own story: a nation born from anti-colonial struggle, standing in solidarity with others seeking the same.
And while the headlines may focus on India's growing defence partnership with Israel, its support for Palestinian civilians has been steady and substantial. Since the conflict began, India has sent nearly 70 metric tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including 16.5 metric tonnes of life-saving medical supplies delivered in two separate tranches. This aid went directly to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and the Palestinian Ministry of Health. That's not all. In 2024 alone, India disbursed $5 million to UNRWA, matching its contribution from the previous year. These funds support education, healthcare, and emergency services for Palestinian refugees, many of whom have nowhere else to turn.
India's diplomatic engagements also underscore its commitment to the Palestinian cause. In September 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the Summit of the Future in New York, expressing deep concern over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and reaffirming India's steadfast support for the Palestinian people
India's policy is rooted in a clear position: firm support for a negotiated two-state solution. Since the Hamas–Israel war erupted in October 2023, the UN General Assembly has voted 13 times on resolutions related to Palestine. India voted for 10 of them. It abstained on just three. That's not indifference, it's discernment. India isn't choosing sides. It's choosing balance.
In 1992, as the Cold War order gave way to new alliances and economic pragmatism, India established full diplomatic ties with Israel. India wasn't walking away from Palestine. It was stepping into a multipolar world, where relationships needed to reflect not just ideology, but national interest, security, and innovation.
Israel offered what India urgently needed: advanced defence technology, agricultural innovation, counter-terror expertise. And for Israel, India became a key democratic partner in the Global South, vast, stable, and increasingly influential. Today, the relationship is multifaceted. Israel supplies India with drones, radar systems, and missile technology. Intelligence cooperation runs deep. For a country facing cross-border terrorism, complex insurgencies, and a volatile neighbourhood, this partnership is neither optional nor ideological, it is essential. India lives with the daily reality of terrorism. Its foreign policy can't be built on ideals alone, it must function in a world of asymmetric threats, complex alliances, and 1.4 billion people watching.
And yet, India has not abandoned the Palestinian cause. India continues to support a two-state solution. It sends humanitarian aid to Gaza. It engages with both Israeli and Palestinian leadership. This is not fence-sitting. It's calibration. And it's exactly what a rising power is supposed to do. It has consistently called for restraint, civilian protection, and de-escalation. India's commitment to peace remains unchanged. What's evolved is its approach: quieter influence, strategic action, and diplomacy that prioritises outcomes over optics.
And then there's Iran.
India's ties with Tehran run deep. Strategically, Iran gives India access to Afghanistan and Central Asia through the Chabahar Port. Economically, Iran has long been a vital source of energy. India's engagement with Iran remains active and strategic, anchored by the Chabahar Port, a project critical to New Delhi's regional connectivity and geopolitical balancing. In May 2024, India and Iran signed a 10-year agreement granting India Ports Global Ltd. (IPGL) the rights to operate the Shahid Beheshti terminal. India committed $120 million in direct investment and extended a $250 million credit line to upgrade infrastructure.
Jointly managed by IPGL (a JV between Jawaharlal Nehru and Kandla Port Trusts) and Iran's Aria Banader, Chabahar offers India a crucial alternative trade route to Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Russia bypassing Pakistan and countering China's influence through Gwadar Port and the Belt and Road Initiative.
As tensions between Iran and Israel escalate, India is closely monitoring risks to both Chabahar and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a multimodal trade network linking India to Eurasia via Iran.
These tensions are not abstract for India, they are tied to real infrastructure, energy flows, and diplomatic alignments. And they sharpened dramatically after October 7, when Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. India responded immediately and unequivocally: it condemned Hamas's actions as terrorism.
But condemnation did not mean abandonment. India's support for Palestinian self-determination, anchored in decades of principled diplomacy remains intact. To some, that duality may look like fence-sitting. In truth, it's strategic autonomy: a deliberate choice in a volatile world.
This is not appeasement. It's agency.
India has always believed in peace but not performatively. It acts. Quietly. It evacuated its citizens from Israel and Iran during the height of tensions. It sent aid to Gaza. And it remains one of the few countries that can still speak to all sides, Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States, the Gulf. That, too, is power.
The world is not binary. India knows this better than most. To expect India to echo talking points is to ignore the reality of a multipolar world. India doesn't follow anymore. It positions.
Predictably, much of the moral outrage over India's foreign policy comes not from the global South or West, but from India's own opposition benches, especially the Congress Party, which now seems more committed to performative critique than constructive diplomacy.
Whether it was the Balakot airstrikes, the abrogation of Article 370, or India's engagement with Israel, Congress's pattern has remained consistent: question first, assess later. From surgical strikes to border skirmishes, Congress's instinct has been reflexive doubt, especially when national interest clashes with its preferred narrative. At best, it's ideological rigidity. At worst, it's political self-sabotage. Either way, it does not align with India's 21st-century realities.
After the October 7 Hamas attacks, India unequivocally condemned terrorism. Congress chose to frame this as a deviation from India's principled foreign policy, overlooking the fact that condemning terrorism and supporting Palestinian rights are not mutually exclusive. This tendency to politicise foreign policy choices, often in the face of cross-party consensus, undermines both credibility and coherence.
Moreover, by portraying strategic partnerships as ideological compromises, the party risks disconnecting from the lived realities of a rising India, one that must engage with a multipolar world on its own terms.
Foreign policy isn't theatre. It's triage. India today is balancing multiple priorities, deepening ties with Israel, managing energy dependencies with Iran, building strategic infrastructure in Chabahar, and remaining a voice for de-escalation in West Asia. That balancing act is fragile. It cannot afford to be derailed by outdated moral binaries or domestic political point-scoring.
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In a world that's fracturing into camps, India is refusing to be boxed in. It is doing what serious nations do, preserving space to speak to all sides.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
About the Author
Natasha Jha Bhaskar
Natasha Jha Bhaskar is Executive Director at Newland Global Group, Australia's leading corporate advisory firm focused on strengthening India-Australia trade and investment ties. She is also the UN Women Austra...Read More
tags :
israel-gaza war Israel-Iran tensions Narendra Modi
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Location :
New Delhi, India, India
First Published:
June 23, 2025, 11:55 IST
News opinion Opinion | India's Voice Is Strategic, Not Silent
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