The sinking of an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean has sparked a heated debate over India stance in the US-Israel war on Iran. On March 4, a US submarine fired a torpedo that sank the IRIS Dena, killing at least 80 crew members. The ship went down off Sri Lanka’s coast, about 100 nautical miles south of India.
While the attack occurred in international waters amid escalating US, Israel, and Iran tensions, critics argue that India’s invitation to the event placed the unarmed ship in harm’s way, exposing New Delhi to moral and strategic scrutiny. The row has exploded online, with thousands of posts questioning India’s silence.
‘India’s responsibility is at a moral and human plane,’ says Kanwal Sibal
Former diplomat Kanwal Sibal took to X and shared his view on the same saying that India bears no military blame but has a moral duty. “The Iranian ship will not be where it was if we had not invited it to take part in our Milan exercise. We were the hosts. I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition. It was defenceless. The Iranian naval personnel had paraded before our President,” he noted.
Sibal further added, “The attack by the US submarine was premeditated as the US was aware. The US has ignored India’s sensitivities… We are far from politically or militarily responsible for the US attack. Our ‘responsibility’ is at a moral and human plane. A word of condolence by the Indian Navy… would be in order.” Sibal, now Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, stresses India’s invitation put the ship in harm’s way.
‘Our watch gets over when the Ship leaves territorial waters’ – An opposing view by Lieutenant General DP Pandey
Lieutenant General DP Pandey, a retired army officer, disagrees sharply. He argues India’s duty ended at its borders. In his March 4 tweet, he said: “Our watch gets over when the Ship leaves territorial water. Not till they get home. Their country is at war. They should have stayed in shelter of India. In international waters, they had Not sought an escort from Indian Navy. And the incident is off the Sri Lankan coast…not India.”
Pandey was responding to journalist Shiv Aroor on X who called the attack “on our watch, in our oceanic backyard,” but Pandey pushed back.
‘A Torpedo in India’s Backyard’: Brahma Chellaney asks why the US strike seemed to be an ‘unfriendly act’
Strategic expert Dr. Brahma Chellaney sees it as a blow to India’s image. In a detailed X post, he wrote, “The US torpedoing of the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in India’s maritime backyard is more than a battlefield event; it is a strategic embarrassment for New Delhi. By sinking a vessel returning from an Indian-hosted multilateral exercise, Washington effectively turned India’s maritime neighborhood into a war zone.”
According to Chellaney, the fact that the ship was sunk while returning from an Indian-hosted multinational exercise effectively turned India’s maritime neighbourhood into a conflict zone. This, he said, raises difficult questions about how much control India really has in the region it considers its own strategic backyard.
He also pointed out that in diplomatic terms, such a strike breaks an unwritten rule of naval conduct. Targeting a vessel soon after it leaves the waters of the country that hosted it, is often viewed as a slight to that host. In his view, the message this sends to other navies is worrying – taking part in Indian naval exercises may not necessarily ensure safety once the ships depart.
Chellaney added that the episode also affects Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s MAHASAGAR vision, which aims to present India as the Indian Ocean’s “preferred security partner.” That idea rests on India’s ability to bring countries together and keep the region stable. The US strike, he argued, damaged that image by showing that a distant power could carry out a deadly military action in the same waters without coordination with New Delhi.
He noted that the attack happened near Sri Lanka, just south of India’s maritime boundary—an area New Delhi has tried to keep separate from the tensions of the Middle East. Instead, the incident has made the Indian Ocean appear tied to that wider conflict.
Chellaney described the situation as a striking contradiction. While Washington may see the torpedo strike as a justified wartime action against an enemy ship, New Delhi is likely to view it as an unfriendly move that weakens India’s diplomacy, its ability to bring countries together, and its claim to leadership in regional maritime affairs.
In his words, the single torpedo strike showed how American hard power has cut through the influence India has carefully built through diplomacy and soft power in the region.
‘India has a compromised PM’: Rahul Gandhi slams PM Modi’s ‘silence’ on Iranian ship Iris Dena’s sinking
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday slammed PM Narendra Modi and questioned his silence on the attack on the Iranian warship. In a post on X, Gandhi argued that at such a sensitive moment the country needed firm leadership, but instead the government had weakened India’s ability to take independent strategic decisions.
“The conflict has reached our backyard, with an Iranian warship sunk in the Indian Ocean. Yet the Prime Minister has said nothing. At a moment like this, we need a steady hand at the wheel. Instead, India has a compromised PM who has surrendered our strategic autonomy,” he said.
Gandhi also warned that the tensions in the Gulf region could affect India’s energy security. He said a large share of the country’s crude oil imports moves through the Strait of Hormuz, and any disruption there could create serious problems. He added that the risk is even greater for supplies of LPG and LNG, which depend heavily on the same route.