New Delhi: The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), with 111 undersigned retired civil servants of the central and All India Services, have written an open letter to the prime minister, home minister and external affairs minister of India expressing outrage over the genocidal situation in Gaza perpetrated by Israel, and raising concern over India’s “weak and ambivalent response”.

Highlighting the Indian government’s “closet support for Israel”, the CCG has said, “India’s response to this profound ethical, moral and existential challenge to humanity has sadly been not just disappointing but cynical, with the government issuing insincere expressions of support for the Palestinian cause on the one hand, while supporting, and sympathising with, Israel on the other.”

The group, that includes many notable names, has also asserted that they do not have any political affiliation and demanded the government to “reclaim its historic leadership in addressing colonial injustices”. 

Read the full letter below:

Honourable Prime Minister of India,

Honourable Home Minister of India,

Honourable External Affairs Minister of India,

The Constitutional Conduct Group, is a group of retired civil servants of the Central and All India Services who have worked both with the Central and State governments. As a group, we have no political affiliation and are only interested in safeguarding constitutional and universal human values. We are writing today to express our outrage over the genocidal situation in Gaza perpetrated by Israel, and concern over India’s weak and ambivalent response.

On October 7, 2023, against the backdrop of continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands since 1948, and a deep division in Israel over Prime Minister Netanyahu, on corruption, judicial and security issues, Hamas launched an attack on the south of Israel killing 1195 Israelis and taking more than 200 hostage. Israel retaliated with a grossly disproportionate and ferocious attack unleashing violence and inhuman measures against Palestinians in Gaza on a scale unprecedented in recent history, in total violation of international laws of war and humanitarian standards.

Israel also expanded its military and intelligence operations to cover the Hezbollah in Lebanon, air defence and nuclear targets in Iran and air strikes in Syria that have killed hundreds; and ground incursions into the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, raising alarms about Israel covertly pursuing its ambitions of Greater Israel.

The human toll of this remorseless retaliation has been horrific. In Gaza alone, nearly 62,000 Palestinians have been killed, but so have hundreds of foreign aid workers, UN personnel and media professionals, with the numbers mounting every day. Entire urban areas and almost 70 per cent of all buildings have been flattened to rubble. These constitute grave war crimes.

To this has been now added a daily toll of at least 5-10 Palestinians, particularly children, dying of starvation induced by the denial and control of food, medicines, fuel and other humanitarian aid; and scores being killed in Israeli firing as Gazans clamour for what little aid is allowed to trickle in, in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to starve the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and force their mass expulsion from the ‘open-air prison’ in Gaza into empty desert wildernesses further south.

There have been growing protests within Israel by hostage families and the public (such as hundreds of thousands in a huge rally in Tel Aviv on August 17) calling for an end to the war and return of the remaining 53 hostages; severe criticism from mainstream politicians for Netanyahu’s use of the war to perpetuate his rule on grounds of national security; and calls from within and outside Israel to act against Israel. South Africa took the lead in referring Israel’s excesses in Gaza to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Saudi Arabia condemned, while over 100 international NGOs signed a letter urging the world to pressure Israel to stop "weaponizing aid" in Gaza and ease its restrictive registration process for groups seeking to distribute supplies in the Strip.

Tragically for the Palestinians, in the absence of support from the United States and those who champion the values of freedom, democracy and human rights, the world has been powerless to stop this savage collective punishment. Indeed, the extent of impunity that Israel has enjoyed would not have been possible without the support of most Western governments and the absence of effective action by Arab states.

Sharp condemnations, calls for cessation of armed attacks, and pleas for access of humanitarian aid into Gaza from the UN General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, American universities and huge rallies in western capitals have been totally ignored by Israel’s leaders. But the slow starvation of an entire population in a man-made famine with searing images of emaciated, starving and malnourished children and adults, seems to have finally stirred the international conscience.

In a landmark decision in November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant. In May 2024, Ireland, Norway and Spain officially recognised the State of Palestine. Several Western governments including key US allies UK, Canada, France and Australia have retracted their blanket support for Israel, and have ‘threatened’ to recognise a Palestinian state at the coming UN General Assembly if Israel didn’t change its position.

Meanwhile, in an ominous turn, on August 8, a divided Israeli Cabinet took a controversial decision to evacuate and occupy Gaza city and central refugee camps in Gaza and take full control of the Gaza strip by October 7, 2025. 

Preparations for this have already begun. Last week, influential far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced long held settlement plans that would sever the north and south of the West Bank and split it in two in a move that he said would "bury the idea of a Palestinian state."

India’s response to this profound ethical, moral and existential challenge to humanity has sadly been not just disappointing but cynical, with the government issuing insincere expressions of support for the Palestinian cause on the one hand, while supporting, and sympathizing with, Israel on the other. It has gone along with UN resolutions in 2023 and 2024 urging an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, asserted India’s support for the two-state solution, and called for extension of humanitarian aid to Gaza, but refused to condemn Israel’s disproportionate response to the October 7 attacks, or its brutal carnage against Palestinians in Gaza, or demand an unconditional ceasefire.

India’s closet support for Israel was exposed in June 2025 when it abstained on a critical UNGA resolution that called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza, unimpeded humanitarian access to Gazans, release of all hostages held by Hamas and other armed groups, and condemned the use of starvation and the denial of humanitarian aid as a tactic of war. India, instead of voting in favour, urged direct diplomacy between both parties to end the conflict, as if both parties were equally at fault. India was only one of 18 other countries to abstain from the resolution. 149 countries voted in favour.

India’s reluctance to speak out against the merciless collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza, has been deeply disconcerting. India has also not condemned the rapid expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank in recent months, a process that continues to fuel violence against and forced displacement of Palestinians.

The ambivalence, and general disregard in India for Palestinian suffering in the face of possible genocide, may well be part of a disturbing rightward communal shift in Indian public opinion, governance and judiciary. Police in various Indian states have routinely cracked down on small groups protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza. In July, a Hindutva mob, allegedly backed by the police, violently disrupted a Palestine solidarity event in New Delhi’s Nehru Place. Even more shocking was the dismissal by the Bombay High Court of a petition challenging the police’s refusal to give permission for a rally on Gaza. The High Court preached to the petitioners to “be patriots”, “concentrate on problems affecting India” and not concern itself with distant problems. Meanwhile, the government has expressed satisfaction in Parliament, that since it signed a bilateral framework agreement in November 2023, 20,000 Indians have got jobs in Israel that Palestinians lost because of the war.

This is a far cry from the internationalism of India’s freedom struggle, its firm opposition through the UN, NAM and other platforms to imperial machinations, colonialism and apartheid of which Israel was one outcome, and its principled position on the Palestinian cause since its inception. The current trends in government and broader society, reflect a communalization of our collective world view, in which national interest, foreign policy and security considerations are increasingly being seen through a narrow, communal prism.

The Constitutional Conduct Group adds its voice to the section of the international civil community that condemns the rabid Israeli response to the horrific Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, against the background of Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestinian lands, its deliberate war crimes, its ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from Gaza, and a slow and defiant genocide that now mimics the holocaust of Jews in Europe in the 20th century and mocks the powerlessness of the international community. We call upon the government of India to reclaim its historic leadership in addressing colonial injustices and consider initiatives to pull Israel back from its genocidal course that may result in one of the blackest chapters in the history of humanity.

Constitutional Conduct Group (111 signatories, as below)

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