New Delhi | Lashing out at the Congress for wanting India to "blindly side with Iran", the BJP on Thursday 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must be guided by national interest and the safety of its citizens not by the compulsions of the opposition party's "outdated ideological reflexes".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 said.
"Even China, which spent years diplomatically shielding Iran, overlooking its support for proxy terror groups and buying the bulk of its oil, is now distancing itself from Tehran," Malviya said in a post on X.
"Yet the Indian National Congress wants India to blindly side with Iran, even as it continues reckless actions across the Gulf, threatens vital oil shipping routes, and escalates tensions in a region where millions of Indians live and work," the BJP's IT department head said.
India's foreign policy, Malviya added, must be "guided by national interest and the safety of its citizens, not by the compulsions of Congress' outdated ideological reflexes".
A day after a US submarine torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship in international waters off Sri Lanka's coast, the Congress said it is shocking that there has been no response from the Modi government and claimed that never before has the Indian government looked so "timid and fearful".
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the West Asia conflict has reached India's backyard but he has not spoken. While the country needed a steady hand at the wheel, it has a "compromised PM who has surrendered our strategic autonomy", the opposition leader said.
BJP national spokesperson Bhandari said in his sharp response, "Anti India Congress wants India to comment on a conflict; where it is not directly involved; whereas its own track record is that of silence at the cost of national interest!"
He alleged in a post on X that when the Congress was in power Sonia Gandhi "instructed" then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to not let any minister express grief on loss of innocent lives because of Naxal terror.
"Tukde-Tukde Congress hates India and Indians; loves vote bank," he added.
Shehzad Poonawalla, another BJP national spokesperson, echoed the view.
“The 2010 letter from Cabinet Secretary, on PM Manmohan Singh's directions, gagged all Union ministers from commenting on the Naxal/Maoist issue publicly-right after the brutal Dantewada massacre of 76 CRPF jawans,” Poonawalla said in a post on X.
"Classic Congress soft-pedaling on Left-wing extremism: muzzle your own ministers, treat Maoists with kid gloves and let security forces pay the price," the BJP spokesperson said, alleging that the Congress was "weak then and now" as well.
Instead of showing strong resolve and unity against India's "greatest internal security threat", the Congress chose "silence, damage control and shielding criticism," he alleged.
