Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has weighed in on the ongoing West Asia crisis, offering a nuanced defence of India’s diplomatic restraint and pushing back against critics who have described the government’s silence on the US-Israeli war on Iran as a moral failure, instead terming New Delhi’s approach as “responsible statecraft”.
In an opinion piece published in The Indian Express, Tharoor argued that while the conflict may violate international law, India’s foreign policy must strike a balance between principle and pragmatism, prioritising national interest, regional stability and strategic partnerships over rhetorical condemnation.
“In the last couple of weeks, many Indian liberals have turned their ire inward, accusing those of us who have not condemned the government’s silence on the US-Israeli war against Iran of moral cowardice. In the American phrase, it has become a ‘circular firing squad’ — shooting on ourselves. They want us all to demand that India should have taken the moral high ground, denouncing the war as a flagrant violation of international law,” he wrote.