#UkraineRussiaWar : Manish Tewari , Shashi Tharoor, Priyanka Chaturvedi , Mahua Moitra Slam India’s Abstain Move At UNSC

Picture : Twitter / ANI

The Modi government’s stand of abstaining from voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution on the Russian attack on Ukraine has not gone down well with the opposition. They said it needed to stand up against the wrong and not stand aside.

Slamming the government for its stance, Senior Congress leader and former I & B Minister Manish Tewari tweeted, There comes a time when nations needs to stand-up and not stand aside. I sincerely wish India had voted in solidarity with people of Ukraine at UNSC who are facing an unprecedented & unjustified aggression. ‘Friends’ need to be told when they are wrong.

Later while speaking to ANI Tewari further explained , India’s Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) policy has been gradually ended since 1991, and today if India thinks of treading back to the same policy, it will be a mistake.

Another Senior Congress leader, Shashi Tharoor, MP Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala , a former UN Diplomat and MoS External Affairs, said in an article: “Invasion is Invasion; we should tell our friend Russia.” “…if ‘friends’ can’t speak honestly to each other, what is the friendship worth,” Tharoor asked.

“India’s decision to abstain in the United Nations Security Council vote on Friday night, on a resolution that would have deplored Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, did not really come as a surprise. ” Tharoor also said, “After our abstention, many regretted that India had placed itself on the ‘wrong side of history’.”

Other leaders who voiced their anguish over India’s stance were, Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP, Priyanka Chaturvedi who in series of tweets accused the government of hypocrisy and said, “Interestingly those who can’t stop abusing and criticising India’s first PM, Nehru, are using the non-alignment policy to justify their position in the UN.”

“Abstain from voting against a war doesn’t make your relationship better but makes your principles weaker against violence and human rights violations,” the Rajya Sabha member said. “Tomorrow it could be us not getting support against China. Today we stood on the same side as China, that speaks loads about our foreign policy.

“Having said that, besides a resolution condemning Russia’s action, what is the UN’s role going to be to help Ukraine on ground? Ally countries are expressing words of support but have left Ukraine alone to defend and fight for itself. The UN will need to relook at its relevance in the New World Order,” Chaturvedi said.

Trinamool Congress MP Mohua Moitra said, “This is an invasion. Naked unprovoked war. Whatever Russia-India diplomatic nuances may be, India needs to call it out for what it is.”