New Delhi, April 10 The Congress urged the BJP-led Centre on Friday to consult with the opposition, and urgently recalibrate and adopt a unified national approach to restore India's historic role as a principled, proactive, and credible voice for peace.
The opposition party welcomed the ceasefire between the United States and Iran as a vital step towards de-escalation, renewed diplomacy, and constructive dialogue, and ultimately, lasting peace in West Asia.
In a resolution adopted at a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting held at the Indira Bhawan here, the party said the targeted assassinations of heads of state, waging war in violation of international law, and attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are unconscionable crimes against both humanity and a rules-based world order.
"Any meaningful resolution must be anchored in the principles of the Geneva Conventions, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Paris Agreement, and the United Nations Charter – particularly the prohibition on the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State (Article 2 [4]) and the peaceful settlement of disputes (Article 2 [3])," the Congress said in the resolution.
The document also said this pause provides an opportunity to assess the costs for India.
In the recent past, India's energy security has been undermined, the country's ties across its extended strategic neighbourhood have been strained, its role as a net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region has weakened, and its moral leadership within the Global South has eroded, it noted.
"Equally worryingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government's myopic, xenophobic, and unprincipled internationalism has not only alienated India from its neighbours but has also undermined decades of painstaking efforts by successive Indian governments to diplomatically isolate Pakistan," the resolution read.
"By ceding strategic and diplomatic space, the BJP government has handed Pakistan the room to rehabilitate its global image and whitewash its track record of fomenting regional instability through support for cross-border terrorism targeting India, Afghanistan, and Iran," the resolution added.
The Congress said the government's "incompetence" has allowed Pakistan to claim a pivotal role in the great power competition in Asia, which will also give Islamabad leverage over New Delhi on crucial bilateral issues through third-parties, effectively internationalising India-Pakistan matters.
"Given the unprecedented polycrisis we face, the BJP government must stop subordinating the national interest to electoral and ideological considerations and disregarding the counsel of India's foreign policy establishment," the resolution adopted at the CWC meeting read.
"Instead, the BJP government must take the Opposition into confidence, urgently recalibrate and adopt a unified national approach to restore India's historic role as a principled, proactive, and credible voice for peace and a just international order," the resolution added.
It said successive governments since 1947 have upheld global principles, drawing on a foreign-policy tradition rooted in "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (the world is one family), Mahatma Gandhi's doctrine of "Ahimsa" (non-violence), and former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's policy of non-alignment.
This commitment is also enshrined in Article 51 of the Constitution, which calls for respect for international law and treaty obligations, it said.
In keeping with this legacy, India has consistently and constructively intervened against apartheid in South Africa, in the Korean War through the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission, in its support for anti-colonial movements across Asia and Africa, as a principled voice of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Global South, reflected in sustained diplomatic efforts to resolve numerous conflicts, such as in Hungary, Egypt, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., and from its contributions to humanitarian relief and United Nations peacekeeping operations, the resolution said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel ahead of the war created the perception of a political endorsement of military escalation and of an incumbent far-right government on the eve of that country's national election, the CWC said.
Both incidents underscored the inherent risks in the conflation of diplomatic engagement with electoral politics and the fundamental principle that relationships are between countries, not between individual leaders or ideologically-aligned political parties, it added.