The Congress on Wednesday asked if the Narendra Modi-led government was losing influence in its own neighbourhood and whether that diplomatic space has been ceded to Washington and Tel Aviv as Pentagon confirmed that it sank an Iranian warship.
“Today, an Iranian naval vessel - returning from the Milan 2026 International Fleet Review, where it had been invited by India - was sunk by a U.S. submarine at the edge of Indian waters near Sri Lanka. Does India have no influence left in its own neighbourhood? Or has that space also been quietly ceded to Washington and Tel Aviv,” Congress leader Pawan Khera wrote on X, a few hours after it emerged that an Iranian warship (IRIS Dena) had sunk off Sri Lanka’s southern coast.
There’s no response from the BJP or the Centre, yet.
US secretary of war Peter Hegseth later confirmed that a US submarine had sunk the IRIS Dena.
“At least 80 people killed in US submarine strike on Iranian warship in Indian Ocean,” Sri Lanka’s deputy foreign minister told local media.
Reuters had earlier reported that at least 101 people are missing and 78 wounded, including 32 seriously.
Author and entrepreneur Shanaka Anslem Perera had initially flagged that the US may be behind the IRIS Dena sinking in the Indian Ocean earlier in the day.
The IRIS Dena had sailed into the Visakhapatnam point on February 16 for the International Fleet Review 2026, where 74 nations participated, except the US, according to Perera.
“Warships from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and dozens of others anchored alongside her. India’s President Droupadi Murmu reviewed the fleet. Iran’s Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani held talks with India’s Chief of Naval Staff on strengthening maritime security cooperation. The theme was ‘United through Oceans,’” Perera wrote.
Perera noted that the US Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney was expected but did not arrive.
“It was cancelled at the last minute. The Maritime Executive reported the reason: it would have been embarrassing to have Pinckney moored alongside IRIS Dena should war break out with Iran during the fleet review,” Perera said on X.
The exercise ended February 25. Three days later, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury. And the IRIS Dena was going back home.
Perera wrote that the IRIS Dena was “caught in transit, between a peacetime exercise and a war that started while she was sailing home.”
On Wednesday (March 4), reports said the Iranian naval frigate had been sunk off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan foreign minister Vijitha Herath told parliament that Sri Lankan authorities had rescued 32 people who were on board and recovered several bodies from the sea.
The navy received a distress call from an Iranian ship and informed the Sri Lankan air force and launched a search and rescue operation, a navy spokesman said.
Sri Lankan forces had also not observed any other ship or aircraft in the area of the incident, he added.
Dr Anil Jasinghe, a top health ministry official, said one of the rescued sailors was in critical condition, seven were receiving emergency treatment and others were being treated for minor injuries.
The Sri Lankan navy has recovered “a few bodies” of Iranian sailors after what crew members reported as an explosion, a spokesman said Wednesday.
“We have found a few bodies from the area where the ship had gone down,” local navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath told reporters in Colombo, adding that the search for others was continuing.
The incident comes on the fifth day of the war between the US, Israel and Iran.
The US and Israel have hit Tehran and other cities with multiple airstrikes, targeting Iranian leadership, security forces, nuclear facilities, air defences and ballistic missile launchers. Nearly 2,000 targets have reportedly been struck.
The situation escalated after a joint airstrike campaign launched on February 28, which killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran has responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz and launching missile and drone strikes against Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, as well as US military assets across the Gulf in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE.
