Why did India abstain from the call for a truce?

Subject: IR

Section: international organisation

Context:

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted on a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” in the hostilities, that was voted for by 120 member countries, while 14 countries voted against it. India was amongst 45 countries that abstained.

Why did the government abstain from voting?

India’s external Minister said that India’s vote was consistent with its stand on terrorism, adding that India takes a strong position on it because Indians are “big victims of terrorism”.
UNGA resolution (A/ES-10/L.25) lacked an explicit condemnation of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas.
- The UNGA resolution did condemn acts of violence against Palestinian and Israeli civilians “including terrorism”, and also called for the immediate unconditional release of the hostages.
India has not as of yet designated Hamas a terror group, something Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon has demanded.

Is India’s vote a break from the past?

Historically, India voted against the partition of Palestine and the creation of a separate state of Israel in 1948, and was the first non-Arab state to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the representative of the people, and to recognise Palestine in 1988, and consistently voted against Israel at the United Nations.
In the 1990s, once India established full diplomatic ties with Israel, India started abstaining from many votes that directly criticised Israel.
In December 1991, just weeks before India and Israel opened their embassies, India was part of a majority that voted at the UNGA to revoke an earlier resolution that equated Zionism with “racism and racial discrimination”.
India raised its annual contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from a million dollars each year to five million dollars a year.
India voted against the U.S.’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
In 2016, India even voted against a UNHRC resolution that called for an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Israeli war crimes, and voted with Israel at the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2019 to stop a Hamas-linked NGO from receiving observer status.

What does India’s stand signify?

Among countries that abstained were India’s other Quad partners Australia and South Korea, and NATO members, including Canada and European countries.
Countries that voted for the resolution: Bhutan, ASEAN countries (exceptthe Philippines, which abstained), all other 11 members of the newly extended BRICS grouping, the entire Arab world (except Tunisia) and most countries of the ‘Global South’.

Source of this article: The Hindu