‘Wrong message sent’: Owaisi questions timing of Modi’s Israel trip

Hyderabad: AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Israel, terming it untimely and alleging that it undermined India's long-standing neutral foreign policy amid the escalating Iran-Israel conflict.Owaisi said the PM's visit, coming days before Tel Aviv launched an attack on Tehran, sent a "very wrong message" that India stood with Israel. He demanded that the govt clarify its position.
"India has historically maintained a neutral and balanced position on the West Asian issue for over eight decades," Owaisi said, questioning the wisdom of departing from that stance at a sensitive time. Addressing reporters, the AIMIM president pointed out that nearly 10 million Indians live in Gulf countries and asked what message it would send to ordinary citizens there if Israel attacked Iran soon after the Prime Minister's visit concluded. "The Prime Minister and the BJP should understand what happened to our 80-year legacy of neutrality on this matter. PM Modi and the BJP should answer these questions. Israel used Modi's visit to attack and tell the world that India was with them. This is a betrayal," he alleged. Owaisi further asked whether the PM had prior information about the attack. "If the PM's aircraft was in the air and such an attack took place, who would be responsible? He should tell the country whether Netanyahu informed him that Israel was going to attack Iran," he said.