In a post titled ‘Natanyahu Not Welcome’ , in Peoples Democracy (mouthpiece of CPI -M ), Prakash Karat has made ridiculous comments that can damage India- Israel relationship. In his article he says :
The prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting India from January 14. His official visit is not something which is to be welcomed. The coalition headed by Netanyahu is the most right-wing government that Israel has had. It consists of ultra-right Jewish parties who openly advocate expulsion of the Palestinian people from the occupied territories and treating the Arabs within the borders of Israel as second-class citizens.
First of all, Karat has no right to decide what kind of government can rule in Israel. It is for the people of that country to decide whether right-wing parties or left-wing parties get to rule Israel. Secondly, Karat fails to analyse that the ‘struggle’ of Palestinian people was complicated by Arab nations because of their mortal attack on the newly constituted state of Israel in 1948 and later in 1967. Karat is also selectively blind to the terrorism perpetrated by PLO on Israeli citizens through their Intifada campaigns. Palestinians are no Gandhians to merit Indian support for their ‘struggle’.
He goes on to say that Indian people, unlike the BJP government, stand in solidarity with people of Palestine.
Contrary to the BJP government’s pro-Israeli stance, India and its people have always stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people and opposed Israeli aggression. Netanyahu should know that his aggressive anti-Palestinian policies are opposed by the secular democratic minded people of India.
CPI(M) is party that is irrelevant since 2014. They have no right to speak for all Indians. They might have had some leverage in UPA government. It had some right to influence key policies before it broke off from the UPA alliance over the Indo-US deal. But now, CPI(M) has only 9 seats in Lok Sabha. That is less than 2% of seats in the lower house. How can he paint his party’s opinion as the opinion of entire India? With this article, Karat displays the usual delusion of grandeur that the communists of India seem to harbour even after humiliating electoral defeat.
Mr Karat needs to understand that people of India need no lessons from him and his party on secularism. And more importantly, his opinions are detrimental to the progress of Indo-Israel cooperation, which is crucial for India’s development. However, blocking progress is the typical attitude of communists. India must ensure that these nincompoops never get more than single digit Lok Sabha seats in future elections. Otherwise, they will continue to block India’s progress domestically and internationally.
In fact, we might as well go out on a limb and say that Bibi might just secure more votes in India than the communists who are, after crushing defeat, trying so hard to become the “voice of the Indian population”. Hypothetically of course.
