Cannot be black and white, must allow for shades of grey, says Salman Khurshid on Israel

Follow TNM’s WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links.

Former External Affairs minister Salman Khurshid stated that it was important for India to adopt ‘shades of grey’ when it came to the genocide in Gaza.

“These are things on which you cannot have immediate and conclusive statements and there are shades of grey. But we must ensure that the shades of grey do not veer towards the dark side and remain on the bright side,” he said. Khurshid was speaking to reporters at the Telangana government’s Bharat Summit on Friday, November 14.

He was asked about the contradictory stance taken by the Congress regarding the ongoing genocide in Palestine. In June 2026, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had shared an editorial penned by senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi titled ‘India remains silent on Gaza, the world continues to speak up.’

Referencing the editorial, Rahul had said that the Prime Minister’s visit to Israel ‘would go down in history as a bewildering strategic decision.’ He also accused the government of ‘slipping into Israel’s strategic orbit, at a time when the world is increasingly pivoting away from it.’

However, the Telangana government’s start up enabler T-Hub on Monday, November 16 will be hosting a Business to Business (B2B) networking event with 20 Israel technology companies including those involved in defense technology. Khursid was asked if the Telangana government’s invitation was not in contradiction to Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party’s criticism of the BJP led Union government’s silence on the genocide in Gaza.

“There are no clear black and white positions but the greys are very important and the shades of grey you pick must be reflective of your ethical and moral position,” Khurshid said.

“I think an important fact is even in your grey, in your dealing with a country as a strategic partner, or as a friend, you still have a responsibility to proclaim to them what are the guard rails and red lines that they must follow. Unfortunately, we didn’t see this in many conflicts in the World where India could have played a role and must have, but didn’t. It happened in Europe, in our own neighbourhood and even in the Israel West Asian crisis,” he said, adding that ‘the clear manner in which you draw the guardrails and red lines has to be apparent.’

The former Union minister also said that when governments deal with other governments, it was important that people share sufficient information with its own citizens to ensure that “there is a public pressure to build upon even a friendly government not to do the things they are doing which do not sit comfortably with ‘our own ethical and moral view.’ He also said that the Congress would want to reflect on the issue ‘in a deeper manner before taking a final view.’

At the time of Salman Khurshid’s press conference, activists based in Hyderabad held a press conference of their own and urged the Telangana government to ‘reconsider the proposed engagement with Israel companies.’ They also asked the Congress led government to ‘ensure that its institutions, resources and innovation ecosystem uphold human rights, accountability and international justice.’