Rahul sees ‘Epstein link’ in Modi’s capitulation

NEW DELHI: India has been blowing hot and cold at Iran over the oil flow disruption through the Hormuz and its targeting of US assets in Gulf states, but it is also talking to Tehran to allow its oil to be shipped, reports said on Thursday.

The apparent capitulation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the arms of the US and Israel has shocked and angered India’s friends abroad, and riled the opposition at home.

In a discussion over LPG shortages and increase in the price of cooking gas cylinders in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi highlighted the arrogance of the US to give “permission” to India to resume purchase of Russian oil.

The Lok Sabha witnessed an uproar as Mr Gandhi’s speech was once again cut short, when he referred to the minister for petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri’s links with the late convicted American sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

Congress party questions ‘US permission’ to buy Russian oil; Indian PM under fire over ‘silence’ on Khamenei assassination

Mr Gandhi was expressing concern over India’s energy crisis in the wake of the conflict in West Asia.

He said that he had “figured out the puzzle” of why a country like India would allow US President Donald Trump to “permit” purchasing Russian oil and said that the “puzzle” is due to a “compromise”.

He then pointed to Mr Puri to say that he had admitted to being a “friend” of Epstein.

Religious and secular groups have staged protests across the country over the Feb 28 US-Israel attack on Iran and the targeted assassination of Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has slammed the Modi government over its silence at the assassination of a head of state. Four days after the fact, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited the Iranian embassy to write a condolence message, but there was not a word from the prime minister.

“Beyond the shock of the event, what stands out equally starkly is New Delhi’s silence,” Ms Gandhi wrote in the Indian Express.

She noted that the Government of India has refrained from condemning the assassination or the violation of Iranian sovereignty. Initially, ignoring the massive US-Israeli onslaught, she wrote in the Indian Express: “The Prime Minister confined himself to condemning Iran’s retaliatory strike on the UAE, without addressing the sequence of events that preceded it. Later, he uttered platitudes about his ‘deep concern’ and talked of ‘dialogue and diplomacy’ — which is precisely what was underway before the massive unprovoked attacks launched by Israel and the US.”

There has been furore also over the US destruction of an Iranian naval ship off the coast of Sri Lanka when it was returning from a friendly visit to India. By protocol the ship was not armed. “When the targeted killing of a foreign leader draws no clear defence of sovereignty or international law from our country and impartiality is abandoned, it raises serious doubts about the direction and credibility of our foreign policy,” Ms Gandhi wrote.

Silence, in this instance, is not neutral. The assassination was carried out without a formal declaration of war and during an ongoing diplomatic process. Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. A targeted killing of a serving head of state strikes at the heart of these principles. If such acts pass without principled objection from the world’s largest democracy, the erosion of international norms becomes easier to normalise.

“The unease is compounded by the timing. Barely 48 hours before the assassination, the prime minister returned from a visit to Israel, where he reiterated unequivocal support for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu — even as the Gaza conflict continues to draw global outrage over the scale of civilian casualties, many of them women and children.

At a time when much of the Global South, along with major powers — and India’s partners in Brics such as Russia and China — have kept their distance, India’s high-profile political endorsement without moral clarity marks a visible and troubling departure. The consequences of this event extend beyond geopolitics. The ripples of this tragedy are visible across continents. And India’s stance is signalling tacit endorsement of this tragedy,” she added.

Writer and dissenter Arundhati Roy said Iran was not Gaza. “The theatre of this new war could expand to consume the whole world. We are on the brink of nuclear calamity and economic collapse. The same country that bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be readying itself to bomb one of the most ancient civilisations in the world.”

Ms Roy was addressing an audience at the reading of her latest book, Mother Mary Comes To Me. “Some of you will remember how we used to joke about that florid, overblown Chinese communist term, ‘Running Dog of Imperialism’. But right now, I’d say, it describes us well.”

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2026