India’s decision to abstain from a United Nations General Assembly vote on a resolution calling for a humanitarian pause in Israel’s bombing on the besieged Gaza Strip is disappointing and dangerous; it also risks undercutting its aspirations to lead the Global South. The resolution was non-binding in nature and was more about capturing the pulse of the world than about putting in place a UN mechanism that member states are required to abide by. India’s vote placed it firmly as an outlier in its region and in the developing world. In all, 121 nations voted in favour of the resolution and 14 against it, with 44 abstentions. India was the only country in South Asia that did not support the resolution and was one of only a handful of nations in all of Asia to abstain. Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa — the other members of the BRICS grouping that is a leading voice of the Global South — all voted for the resolution, leaving India isolated both in its immediate neighbourhood and among the largest emerging economies. Even within the West, several European Union member states — from France, Spain and Ireland to Malta, Portugal and Belgium — supported the resolution.

Officially, the Narendra Modi government has argued that it abstained because the resolution lacked a clear, unequivocal condemnation of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 which set off Israel’s devastating bombardment of Gaza. However, the text of the resolution condemns attacks on both Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including through acts of terrorism, while calling for a truce aimed at moving towards a ceasefire. India itself has not declared Hamas a terrorist organisation and has refrained from naming it directly in official statements on the current conflict. India has long advocated diplomacy and dialogue as the only path to a resolution of any conflict. That has been India’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war too. With the death toll in Gaza crossing 8,000, including thousands of children, and Israel launching ground incursions into the blockaded territory, it is unclear why India is not similarly voting for an immediate halt — or at least a pause — to the hostilities. New Delhi’s abstention undermines its long-standing reputation as a voice for peace and hurts its standing among nations of the Global South. By choosing not to support a resolution calling for an end to the suffering of civilians, India risks being on the wrong side of history.