How US sinking of Iranian warship blew gap in Modi’s ‘guardian’ claims

[ad_1] New Delhi, India — Wearing a blue Navy uniform and glossy sun shades, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in late October, addressed a gathering of the nation’s sea warriors.

He listed out the strategic significance of the Indian Ocean — the large volumes of commerce and oil that cross via it. “The Indian Navy is the guardian of the Indian Ocean,” he then mentioned, to loud, proud chants of “Lengthy Stay Mom India” from his viewers.

Lower than 5 months later, India has been proven up as a “guardian”, unable to guard its personal visitor.

On Wednesday, the Iranian warship, IRIS Dena, was torpedoed by a US submarine simply 44 nautical miles off (81km) southern Sri Lanka, because it was returning house from naval drills hosted by India. In the course of the “Milan” biennial multilateral naval train, Indian President Droupadi Murmu had posed with sailors from the Dena.

But it took the Indian Navy greater than a day after the Iranian warship was struck to reply formally to the assault, which US officers made clear was an indication of how the Donald Trump administration was prepared and able to broaden its warfare towards Iran.

“An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was secure in worldwide waters,” US Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned on the Pentagon on Wednesday. “As a substitute, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet dying.”

Tehran is livid over the assault on its warship tons of of miles away from house. And Iran made positive to notice that the IRIS Dena warship was “a visitor of India’s navy”, returning after finishing the train it joined upon New Delhi’s invitation.

“The US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles [3,218km] away from Iran’s shores,” Iran’s overseas minister Abbas Araghchi mentioned, referring to the sinking of the frigate. “Mark my phrases: The US will come to bitterly remorse [the] precedent it has set.”

Now, the IRIS Dena is on the backside of the Indian Ocean, and greater than 80 Iranian sailors, who marched throughout joint parades and posed for selfies with Indian naval officers throughout their two-week go to, are useless.

What has additionally fallen, mentioned retired Indian naval officers and analysts, is India’s self-image as a internet safety supplier within the Indian Ocean. As a substitute, they mentioned, the US assault on the Dena has uncovered the boundaries of India’s energy and affect in its personal maritime again yard.

<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" class="size-arc-image-770 wp-image-4367418" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/reuters_69a95e12-1772707346.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80" alt="A vessel sails off the Galle coast after a submarine attack on the Iranian military ship, Iris Dena, off Sri Lanka, in Galle, Sri Lanka, March 4, 2026. REUTERS/Thilina Kaluthotage" fetchpriority="low"/> A vessel sails off the Galle coast after a submarine assault on the Iranian army ship, Iris Dena, off Sri Lanka, in Galle, Sri Lanka, March 4, 2026 [Thilina Kaluthotage/Reuters] ‘Struggle reaches India’s yard’ After collaborating within the naval workouts, IRIS Dena left Visakhapatnam on India’s jap coast on February 26. It was hit in worldwide waters, simply south of Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, within the early hours of March 4, native time.

In response, Sri Lankan Navy rescuers recovered greater than 80 our bodies and picked up 32 survivors, reportedly together with the commander and a few senior officers from the warship. Greater than 100 males are nonetheless lacking.

In a tweet welcoming the Dena to the naval drills, the Indian Navy’s Jap Command had posted: “Her arrival … [reflects] long-standing cultural hyperlinks between the 2 nations [Iran and India]”.

Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha, the previous vice chief of India’s naval workers, informed Al Jazeera that he attended the Iranian parade on the operate.

“I met and actually preferred them, particularly their march for sailors travelling hundreds of miles,” Sinha mentioned. “It's at all times unhappy to see a ship sinking. However in a warfare, feelings don’t work. There’s nothing moral in a warfare.”

Sinha mentioned that the Indian Ocean — central to the strategic and power safety of the nation with the world’s largest inhabitants — was considered a reasonably secure zone earlier. “However that isn't the case, as we're studying now,” he informed Al Jazeera.

“The unfolding battle [between the US and Israel on the one hand, and Iran on the other] has reached India’s again yard. New Delhi needs to be involved,” Sinha, who served within the Indian Navy for 4 a long time, added. “The freedom we loved within the Indian Ocean has apparently shrunk.”

Safety personnel stand guard as an ambulance enters contained in the Galle Nationwide Hospital, following a submarine assault on the Iranian army ship, IRIS Dena, off the coast of Sri Lanka, in Galle, Sri Lanka, March 5, 2026 [Thilina Kaluthotage/Reuters] India’s Catch-22 scenario Solely on Thursday night did the Indian Navy problem any formal assertion on the assault — greater than 24 hours after the Dena was hit by a torpedo.

The Navy mentioned that it obtained misery indicators from the Iranian ship and had selected deploying sources to assist with rescuing sailors. However by then, it mentioned, the Sri Lankan Navy had already stepped to guide the rescue effort.

Neither New Delhi nor the Navy has criticised — even mildly — the choice by the US to sink the Iranian warship.

Army analysts and former Indian naval officers say India is caught in a basic catch-22: Was India conscious of the incoming US assault within the Indian Ocean on an Iranian warship, or was it blindsided by a nuclear-submarine in its yard?

Admiral Arun Prakash, the previous chief of India’s naval workers, informed Al Jazeera that if New Delhi was blindsided, “it displays on the US-India relationship immediately.”

“If it's a shock, then that’s a fantastic concern since we've got a so-called strategic partnership with the USA.”

And if India knew concerning the assaults, it could be seen by many as strategically siding with the US and Israel over their warfare on Iran.

C Uday Bhaskar, a retired Indian Navy officer and at the moment the director of the Society for Coverage Research, an unbiased suppose tank primarily based in New Delhi, mentioned that the US sinking an Iranian warship within the Indian Ocean muddies the Indian notion of itself as a “internet safety supplier” within the area.

Bhaskar mentioned the incident is a “strategic embarrassment” for India and weakens New Delhi’s credibility within the Indian Ocean, whereas its ethical standing “takes a beating” due to the Indian authorities’s near-silence.

An injured Iranian sailor is moved on a stretcher at Galle Nationwide Hospital, the place the sailors are receiving remedy, following a submarine assault on the Iranian army ship, IRIS Dena, off the coast of Sri Lanka, in Galle, Sri Lanka, March 5, 2026 [Thilina Kaluthotage/Reuters] ‘India on aggressor’s aspect’ Within the post-colonial world order, India was a pacesetter of the non-alignment motion, the Chilly Struggle-era neutrality posture adopted by a number of growing nations.

India now not calls its method non-alignment, as a substitute referring to it as “strategic autonomy”. However, in actuality, it has inched nearer to the USA and its allies, most significantly, Israel.

Merely two days earlier than the US and Israel bombed Iran, Modi was in Israel, addressing the Knesset and warmly hugging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who known as his Indian counterpart a brother.

However Iran, below the late Supreme Chief Khamenei, was a buddy of India as effectively, with New Delhi making strategic, enterprise, and humanitarian investments within the nation.

Nonetheless, Modi has not mentioned a phrase in condolence after Khamenei’s assassination. On Thursday, Indian Overseas Secretary Vikram Misri visited the Iranian embassy in New Delhi to signal a memorial ebook. Indian governments usually deploy ministers — not bureaucrats or diplomats — for such sombre events.

It's towards that backdrop that India’s response to the assault on the Dena has come below scrutiny.

As a result of the frigate was hit when it was in worldwide waters, India had “no formal duty”, mentioned Srinath Raghavan, an Indian army historian and strategic analyst.

“However the US Navy’s actions underline each the spreading geography of this warfare and the sharp limits of India’s skill to handle, not to mention management, its fallout,” Raghavan informed Al Jazeera.

Diplomatically, India has “objectively positioned itself on the aspect of the aggressors on this warfare,” he mentioned, by “acts of fee — go to to Israel on the eve of warfare — and of omission, with not even [an] official condolence, not to mention condemnation, of the assassination of the Iranian head of state.” Modi visited Israel on February 25-26.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of India’s opposition Congress occasion, mentioned the Modi authorities had recklessly abdicated “India’s strategic and nationwide pursuits”. And the federal government’s silence “demeans India’s core nationwide pursuits and destroys our overseas coverage, rigorously and painstakingly constructed and adopted by successive governments over time.”

As well as, Raghavan highlighted that Modi has solely criticised Iran’s retaliation, which threatens to tug the Gulf area to the brink of warfare.

“It's tough to not conclude that India has drastically downgraded its pursuits within the relationship with Iran,” he mentioned.

“All of this detracts from India’s credibility as a participant within the area and may have brief and long-term penalties for the equities in West Asia [as the Middle East is referred to in India],” Raghavan informed Al Jazeera.