Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused the Centre of failing to defend national honour after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz must comply with orders from US forces, days after three mariners from India were killed in strikes on merchant shipping near Oman.
The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar over New Delhi’s handling of the episode, saying Washington had offered neither remorse nor apology for the deaths. His intervention turned a sensitive diplomatic exchange into a sharp domestic political confrontation, with Congress leaders arguing that India’s response had not matched the gravity of the loss of civilian lives.
Gandhi said the US had continued to issue directions even after the deaths of the three sailors. “A free country would never tolerate such language,” he said, accusing the Prime Minister of remaining silent while Washington used the language of command. The remarks came after a US readout of Rubio’s conversation with Jaishankar said all commercial vessels should “immediately comply” with orders from US forces and that violations of a US blockade or illicit transport of Iranian oil “will not be tolerated”.
Jaishankar had spoken to Rubio after the strikes and said he had conveyed India’s strong protest over attacks by the US Navy in the Gulf that killed three mariners. He said lethal action against commercial shipping could not be justified. New Delhi also summoned US Chargé d’Affaires Jason Meeks more than once during the week as concerns grew over the targeting of vessels carrying crew members from India in waters around the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz.
The first attack involved the Palau-flagged tanker MT Settebello off the Oman coast, where three crew members from India were killed. A second merchant vessel with 20 crew members from India was also reported to have come under attack in the same zone. The incidents have deepened anxiety among seafarers and shipping operators because the Hormuz corridor remains one of the world’s most important energy routes, carrying a large share of seaborne oil and liquefied natural gas.
Congress leaders joined Gandhi in questioning both Washington’s tone and New Delhi’s reaction. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra described the Centre’s silence after the deaths as shameful and said the US was resorting to the language of threats instead of expressing regret. Pawan Khera said India should have demanded an unconditional apology and called Rubio’s remarks “the language of command, not contrition”. Manish Tewari asked Jaishankar to release New Delhi’s own readout of the call, saying Rubio’s public posture showed no regret, empathy or sympathy.
Shashi Tharoor also criticised the US statement, asking whether merchant ships in the region with crew members from India were now to be treated as targets. His remarks pointed to a wider concern within the shipping industry: seafarers from India form a large part of global merchant crews, and escalation around Hormuz can expose civilian maritime workers to military risks far beyond their control.
The Centre has not accepted the US framing of the strikes as a matter of blockade enforcement. Jaishankar’s public line that lethal action against commercial shipping was unjustified signalled formal disapproval, but Congress argued that the wording was too restrained for an incident involving civilian deaths. The opposition has sought to portray the episode as a test of strategic autonomy, particularly at a time when New Delhi is balancing energy security, defence ties with Washington and instability in West Asia.
The diplomatic dispute comes amid intensified US-Iran tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, where Washington has moved to tighten enforcement against vessels it says are linked to Iranian oil movements. For India, the risk is twofold: threats to energy routes through the Gulf and the safety of thousands of seafarers working on foreign-flagged vessels that pass through contested waters.
