New Delhi: The opposition on Thursday questioned the government’s silence on a US submarine sinking an Iranian warship with a torpedo in international waters off Sri Lanka’s coast, with Rahul Gandhi saying the conflict has reached “our backyard and while India needs a steady hand at the wheel, it has a “compromised PM”.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Narendra Modi government’s “reckless abdication” of India’s strategic and national interests is there for all to see.
Lashing out at the Congress for wanting India to “blindly side with Iran”, the BJP said the country’s foreign policy must be guided by national interest and the safety of its citizens, not by the compulsions of the opposition party’s “outdated ideological reflexes”.
Several BJP leaders, including Amit Malviya and Pradeep Bhandari, spoke on the issue, calling the Congress “anti-India” and alleging that the main opposition party pursues divisive politics. It only loves its vote bank, not the country and its people, the ruling party alleged. Their remarks come a day after a US submarine torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship in international waters off Sri Lanka’s coast when it was returning after participating in the Milan naval exercise, a multilateral wargame hosted by India. In a post on X, Kharge said, “An Iranian ship, a guest of India, was returning unarmed from the International Fleet Review 2026, hosted by us, and was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). No statement of concern or condolence. PM Modi remains mute.”
“Why lecture us on the doctrines of MAHASAGAR and India being a ‘Net Security Provider’ in the IOR, when you can’t react to what is happening in your own backyard? As many as 38 Indian Flag commercial ships along with 1100 sailors are stuck in the Gulf of Hormuz,” he said. Gandhi said the world has entered a volatile phase and “stormy seas lie ahead”. “India’s oil supplies are under threat, with more than 40 per cent of our imports transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The situation is even worse for LPG and LNG,” he said on X.