Activists urge govt to cancel licenses of companies supplying military equipment to Israel
New Delhi, Aug 1: Citing an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling which said Israel is in violation of obligations under the Genocide Convention, activists on Thursday demanded that government of India should cancel the licenses of the companies supplying military arms and equipment to Israel.
At a press conference here, author Arundhati Roy, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat, development economist Jean Dreze, retired diplomat Ashok Sharma and advocate Prashant Bhushan said the Indian companies are supplying military equipment to Israel as it is a signatory to the Genocide Convention.
Karat said India has always had solidarity with Palestine and it requires people to hold the government accountable.
“Solidarity with Palestine requires us to hold accountable our own government and its actions which support the perpetrators of the continuing barbaric horror against children and people of Palestine,” Karat said.
“The Government of India should cancel all licenses to supply military equipment to Israel and hold the issuing of more licenses. Made in India equipment drones, explosive are being sent and used in the war, the genocide against Palestine,” she added.
Karat also said that India is also importing military and security equipment from Israel, which is economically helping Israel in its actions. She also slammed the government for sending the Indian labour to replace the Palestinian workers.
“Thousands of workers have been shipped off to Israel. This is direct support of apartheid policy of Zionist govt of Israel,” she said.
Karat also said the ongoing offensive in Gaza is being portrayed as a religious war which is not the truth, adding India is being complicit in one of the worst horrors world has witnessed.
Roy said it is the responsibility of people of India to show they are not complicit in what is happening in Gaza.
“We want this weapon export to stop,” she said.
Roy also said that while the US is being complicit by exporting arms to Israel, India is exporting its poverty by sending workers to Israel.
She also said it is being said that the US can stop the offensive by a phone call, but it looks like the US has also been captured by Israel and mentioned the way in which protests supporting Palestine were crushed there.
“Students in America can protest against their own government, but they cannot protest against Israel. When they protest against Israel, students and teachers are beaten up and arrested,” Roy said.
“As people we have to show we do not support our government in supporting what is happening in Gaza,” she added.
Dreze read out a statement by the Right to Food Campaign, which said while many Palestinians have died, those injured are deprived of medical facilities as Israel has been targeting relief workers, ambulances and healthcare workers as well.
He said the survivors are now being starved and the United Nations agencies estimate that more than 90 per cent of the population of Gaza is suffering from acute food deprivation.
“This attack on the right to food and healthcare is reason enough on its own to call for an immediate ceasefire and to end all cooperation with the state of Israel for the time being. Unfortunately, the Government of India has done nothing to contribute to an end to these war crimes,” he said.
“On the contrary, it has remained a faithful ally of the Israeli government – subsidizing Indian companies that produce military material for Israel, sending Indian workers to Israel in replacement of Palestinian workers, and suppressing protests against Israel in India. Even at the United Nations, India has mostly abstained from efforts to bring about resolutions that would restrain Israel,” he added.
Meanwhile, retired diplomat Ashok Sharma pointed out that while no official explanations are available, the posts on social media claim that India is helping Israel because they supplied India with arms during the Kargil war.
“How can you compare Kargil with Gaza? We were tying to throw out intruders, whereas in Gaza, it is a case of mass scale genocide against civilians who are innocent,” he said.
He also said that there were attempts during recent assembly as well as general elections to portray the ongoing conflict in Gaza to promote Islamophobia.
Bhushan said that India allowing export of military equipment to Israel is a violation of law and those officials who are involved should be punished.
The activists said they will submit a memorandum to the government as well as to all Parliament members.
Karat hoped that the issue would be raised in Parliament by the members.
“We have not heard this voice yet in Parliament. We will send this memorandum to the defence secretary and all MPs,” she said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
