The Vishwaguru must speak up – High time!

For permanent peace in the Middle-East, Israel must vacate Palestinian land it has illegally occupied – Atal Bihari Vajpayee

The situation in Gaza is getting out of hand rapidly with Israel tightening its noose under the garb of its operation to eliminate terror outfit Hamas. Media is abuzz with the news of a grave (yes grave) humanitarian crisis with hundreds of thousands of people facing death either due to the air raids and bombings or starvation.

Israel has sealed off the borders, blocked food, water and even medicine supplies and went to the extent of directing the lone hospital treating the victims of bombings to close down. Worse still, the Jewish country gave a 24 hour notice for over a million people to vacate their homes and move south as it could intensify the so-called anti-Hamas operation without further notice. Shocking and criminal.

What is even more shocking is the fact that the United Nations, which has completely collapsed, has the cheek to just repeat the Israeli warning and not do anything concrete about it. The global organisation, created after the 2nd World War, appears to have been reduced to a platform for rhetoric and speeches in various languages including Hindi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself criticised the UN for losing its relevance and remaining a failed organisation particularly during pandemic. His latest blast came during the much-celebrated G20 summit in New Delhi. In a laced criticism, Modi said The G20 members represent more than 80 per cent of world GDP and 75 per cent of international trade and they should 'not hesitate to acknowledge that multilateral institutions such as the UN have been unsuccessful' in dealing with the global problems.

So, what next? Can the G20 assume a mini-UN role and begin to work on resolving global issues. Certainly, G20 has much more to do than recycling old resolutions with little targeted action plan.

The ongoing West Asia crisis is a golden opportunity for the G20 to act and bring peace. From India the outgoing president to Brazil the next one could start exchanging notes among themselves and then quickly work on video calls, diplomatic moves and handle the humanitarian crisis.

Here is the list of G20 nations to give you an idea of what can be done: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, the United States, the African Union and the European Union.

Now, let me tickle your memory on what PM Modi said at the inauguration of the G20 Summit, not very long ago, on September 9:

“Today, as the President of the G-20, India invites the entire world to come together and, first and foremost, transform this Global Trust Deficit into global trust and confidence.

“This is a time for all of us to walk together, and the mantra of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, and Sabka Prayas' can become a guiding light for all of us.

“Whether it’s a turbulent global economy, or the North-South divide, or the distance between East and West, Management of Food, Fuel, and Fertilizer, or dealing with Terrorism and Cybersecurity, or ensuring Health, Energy, and Water Security, we must move towards concrete solutions for these challenges, not just for the present but also for future generations.”

Well said, as usual. The Israel-Hamas conflict in which innocent Palestinians are getting sandwiched for no fault of theirs is a fit case for G20 moving together “towards concrete solutions”. We have lost a lot of time since Hamas' brutal attack on Israel and the latter’s counter.

We learnt from the social media posts of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar that he spoke to Saudi and UAE counterparts. That’s about it. We haven’t heard anything after that.

Israel PM Netanyahu spoke to PM Modi once and tweeted “People of India stand firmly with Israel in this difficult hour. India strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.” So far so good. In the same breath, Modi ought to have criticised Israel for punishing the ordinary citizens of Palestine while targeting Hamas. He could have even given friendly advice to Netanyahu not to harm civilians.

Even Israel’s strongest ally US has criticised the Jewish nation for its occupying of Gaza as a big mistake. President Joe Biden even advocated the two-nation theory – Israel co-existing with Palestine. India for long has been advocating an independent Palestine which the BJP machinery branded as vote bank politics. With their anti-Muslim and pro-Hindu stance, the Godi Media is mixing up the issues, totally ignoring the humanitarian aspect. A very unfortunate brainwashing exercise by a section of journalists.

Let’s forget all that and focus on the immediate crisis. Gaza needs help. It is foolish for Israel (read Netanyahu) to expect that the evacuation of the Northern part of Gaza would mean that the civilians leave the area and only Hamas elements remain their waiting to be massacred. First of all, it is impossible for the one million-plus to leave and stay in the southern strip. It would create a stampede if Israel starts pushing them with ground and air attacks. G20 needs to quickly analyse and realise all these scenarios and come to the rescue of the commoners trying to live in Gaza without food, water and medicines.

It is unfortunate that last week’s G20 Finance Ministers meeting at Marrakech in Morocco did not say anything about the Israel-Hamas war on the plea that the issue did not figure much in their discussions. Clearly a missed opportunity. But a G20 member Russia clearly speaks against Israel for obvious reasons and calls for peace. But Russia, being an aggressor itself against Ukraine, loses credibility when it talks of peace – a case of devil quoting scriptures!

But what happened to Vishwaguru? It is high time it spoke out and led a humanitarian mission to Gaza. Our much-acclaimed and publicised global leadership is under severe test.

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based author and independent media veteran, running websites and a youtube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging.)