CPI-M dubs Modi's Israel visit as an extension of Hindutva ideology

Modi on Tuesday arrived in Tel Aviv for a three-day visit to Israel -- the first by an Indian Prime Minister.

New Delhi, July 4: Senior CPI-M leader Prakash Karat on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel was a part of an overall Hindutva ideology which was coming into play both domestically and in terms of foreign policy.

The former Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) General Secretary also added that Modi's visit was also an open declaration that India doesn't stand by the Palestinian cause anymore.

"What the Modi government is doing within India, this foreign policy is an extension of that," said Karat at a public meeting organised by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, stressing there was a need to oppose this direction of foreign policy as well as the strategic alliance between India and Israel "which betrays the Palestinian cause".

Modi on Tuesday arrived in Tel Aviv for a three-day visit to Israel -- the first by an Indian Prime Minister.

The visit coincides with India and Israel marking 25 years of their diplomatic relations and 50 years of occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Karat said the visit would lead to "total identification" of the Indian government -- and through that of India -- with the Israeli occupying state and would "legitimise all atrocities" and the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel.

"This is a complete reversal from India's long-held traditional stand the centre of which was Palestinian fight for independence.

"From (Mahatma) Gandhi's time till the 1980s, India stood firm with Palestinian struggle for freedom. And today that is completely abandoned," said Karat.

IANS